Plague of Beginnings
by L.H.Collider
Summary: A Story that covers two periods in the lives of Plague Knight and Mona, chapters swapping between the two. The first is the tale of how they met, the troubles they faced living on the streets of Pridemoor as Alchemy is frowned upon, and how they strive to become better than before. The second takes place a few years before Plague of Shadows as the duo are apprentice alchemists...
1. Prologue - Esoteric

_**"Out of the One comes Two, out of Two comes Three, and from the Third comes the One as the Fourth."**_

-Maria Prophitessa, First known Alchemist of the Western World

Prologue

Fifteen years before the tower fell

"You`re never going to see the sun again. I`ll make sure of it, you little demon."

The Kingdom of Pridemoor was usually the kind of place that one would be lucky to live in. Verdant farmlands, little poverty, and a bit more freedom than would usually be seen due to years of prosperity brought on by a well-managed kingdom, lack of corruption, and a steady supply of heroic knight errants thwarting evil. The King was young, but kind and fastidious, if not a bit aloof. Still, there was a wide consensus among the townspeople that he was the most promising heir, and so far, that had worked out.

"Is that the one? But he's so small.." A girl no more than thirteen whispered to the much older woman sitting next to her, looking quite bored otherwise.

"Yeah, that's him, the lunatic. This'll probably be the fastest one yet. No wonder the place filled to the brim." The well-dressed woman said haughtily, without turning her attention away from the small figure approaching the courtroom floor.

In truth, there wasn`t much else to look at. The courthouse was maintained at the barest level and had been cleaned and set up in a rush for the current case.

Trials were a bit of a rarity in Pridemoor, as most crimes were punished quickly by the royal guard and simple cases, or full scale attacks that were handled by knight errants, with procedure simplified to the collection of a bounty.

As such,the legal system was used mostly for show, when the Council of Nobles or the Guild Coalition needed to make an example, as was the case tonight.

"I'm surprised it took them this long to catch a child. Still, what he did though..." The well-dressed woman looked for her associates as the girl next to her took an apple out of her knapsack and began eating slowly. She tried her best to put the image past her, as it seemed like the girl hadn`t eaten in quite a while.

The guard, Forel, looking every bit the proud officer of the king, took his handcuffed captive to the defendant's bench."Get your slimy hood up there and stay put!"

With a jab to the boy's back with his armored elbow, he stumbled toward the defendant's podium. He tripped, hitting his head hard on the wooden surface. The shock caused him to double over in pain as some blood left the edge of the platform.

Some in the audience laughed, while others lowered their heads and bit their lips trying to avoid being seen laughing at a child's injury. The well-dressed woman merely stared forward, hearing only the quiet sniggering and the annoying crunch of the girl next to her eating her apple.

"The defendant will remove his hood before the court for all to see."

The judge, sitting atop his podium said as he stared at the small, hooded figure in front of him. From what he could see, the boy, who couldn`t be more than ten or possibly eleven, and even then quite small for his age, was hesitant to do so even when injured on the podium, his ragged clothes matching the dark brown hood he wore, yet somehow visibly still covered with what he would hope to believe was sweat from the chase he gave the town guards. Normally, if he were not in court assigned to this case, he would have asked for a Magicist to heal the child, but the instructions he was given for this trial were made especially clear.

Slowly, the boy removed his hood, revealing a rather unremarkable and common face, save for the larger than average nose, and the burn marks leaving several splotches around his cheeks and forehead.

"Is the defendant ready to hear the charges against him?"

"Oh I've been waiting for quite a while, actually, hehe.."

The child spoke in a surprisingly mature voice for his age, as the audience couldn`t help but snigger along with him. Indeed, it seemed he was perhaps even older than the judge thought, which just made his stature even more pitiful.

"The defendant will refrain from making unnecessary remarks. Now, please state your full name and age for the court."

The boy sighed. "I have a profession as well. Don`t you usually ask that at these things? Oh yeah, 'unnecessary remarks'. How old I am, I`m not quite sure actually. You could ask your wife."

The judge furrowed his brow and banged his gavel as the audience broke out in surpressed laughter. Even Forel had to hold himself back a bit.

" Boy, let me make this clear. If I lose my patience, you will be found in contempt of court as well as guilty of all charges, and I`m afraid today I have a very short fuse. Do I make myself clear?"

At that moment, the girl eating her apple began to choke a bit, gagging slightly and eventually spitting out the troublesome piece. The woman next to her rolled her eyes. If she had perhaps been wearing something slightly less filthy, she would have given her a pat on the back so the thing wouldn`t die, but the problem had resolved itself.

"Fine," The boy continued. "My name? I'd like to think I've been given one by this especially loving community. Oh yes, hee, I believe I am "The Plague of Pridemoor". I rather like it, know what? Call me Plague for short is fine, hee hee hee."

The somewhat jovial mood in the room evaporated. The Plague of Pridemoor was not a name to be invoked in jest. Only the judge, Forel, and a few select individuals had known about this claim beforehand, as well as one other aspect of this child.

"Let me make this clear Pl...boy.", said the judge with an uneasiness in his voice."Right now you are charged with Theft, attempted arson, assault, the conspiracy to commit grand theft, and disrespect of Pridemoor authorities. There are multiple witnesses to these acts and the evidence is irrefutable. However, If I were to believe for even a second that the Plague of Pridemoor, the evil scourge who poisoned thousands, nearly ground agricultural productivity to a halt,was responsible for the destruction and theft of untold amounts of public, personal and guild property, as well as the direct assault of several Magic guild personell, including High Magicist Arga and the central guild branch itself was a boy who could barely reach my waist in height, I`m afraid that the king should not only force me to resign, but have me committed!"

The boy listened attentively at each of the charges listed, looking up at the ceiling and mouthing words to himself as he made motions with his fingers as if counting, only giving a slight grimace at one of them.

"Hee! I suppose that's about right."

The audience erupted in a commotion of shouts and frustration, which the boy answered quickly.

"Of course, I`d probably be off to the dungeon or the gallows by now without all of this theatre if you didn`t believe me even slightly."

The judge swallowed, looking to the officials seated at the prosecutorial bench on the right side of the courtroom. Their expressions remained unmoving and still as the golems they had beside them for security, the meaning of which the judge hoped he had guessed incorrectly.

"Yes. We know that you are connected with the true Plague. Perhaps some sick version of what he would call an apprentice. Which is why we are willing, by the grace of the council of nobles, to overlook your transgressions in exchange for information on his face and identity, as well as his base of operations and complete refutation of his name and ideals!"

The room stood silent, save for the sound of the crunching of fruit.

"Name is Plague. Here's my face. I live at the intersection of Pride and Moor. Usually, hee. Now can I go home? Since you said I'd be clear of charges and all."

The judge stood suddenly, "Now. See. Here. I am _this_ close to having you sent to hard labor for the rest of your miserable, sniggering, insignificant little life if you do not tell me how you came across those documents!" The sound of the gavel rang out loudly as the officials at the prosecutorial bench gave piercing glares which made the judge sit back down quickly, regaining his composure.

"Ask me to introduce myself the way a defendant should, and I`ll tell you." For once, the boy was completely straight-faced, looking the judge in the eye.

"Will the defendant please once again state his name, age, and occupation for all to hear."

The boy stood and smiled, turning to look at the prosecutor's bench and the audience. " I am the Plague of Pridemoor, I do now know how old I am. I'd best guess around twelve.

And I am an Alchemist."

Yells of "Boo!" and "Fraud!" filled the air as the dour looking officials at the proscutor's bench smiled. Their golems began to lurch ever so slightly.

"I simply took the ashes that High Magicist Arga foolishly left behind after burning them, and restored them with a bit of Reverse Entropic Transmutation, Organic and inorganic ratio 96-4 using a temporal stabilizing element distilled from..oh, I see. Hee hee hee!"

At that moment, Plague saw the audience now staring daggers at him, with the well-dressed woman looking on in horror as the golems now began to visibly move.

The judge banged his gavel for the last time. "You must truly hate living on the streets to have resorted to such a depraved practice, but I guarantee you that the life I`m about to send you to will be far, far worse. I've heard all that I need to. Guards!"

The well dressed woman stood up to shout, or rather tried to, but found that her dress had somehow been fused to the bench, and her shoes to the floor. "He's not restrained! Get him naooooh!" she said as she tipped over, falling into the crowd in front of her.

"Well, I`m glad that's over! Now, who wants to be the famous guard to _really_ capture the Plague of Pridemoor!"

The handcuffs seemed to slip off of his wrists like they weren't even secured to begin with. They fell to the ground with a clank as he saw himself surrounded by guards and golems with their swords drawn and fists raised.

"You don`t have any weapons, we destroyed your little bag of tricks and everything you had hidden back when we caught you before, so don`t even think of "summoning" them or anything.", Forel shouted, confidently.

"Oops, you`re absolutely right. Sort of. Actually not at all. Hee!"

The boy took some of the slime from his coat and blood from the defendant's bench, in a flash, drawing a basic circular design in the blink of an eye. "Now.. all I need is a.."

At that moment, an apple core came flying towards the boy, which seemed to curve impossibly in the air between the guards as it came to rest in his hand.

"Catalyst!"

The symbol and apple core glowed with an ethereal light and a blinding flash filled the room. In its place, a satchel that was all too familiar to High Magicist Arga appeared as she struggled to burn away the soles of her shoes and hem of her dress fused to the bench. "How.. When did he do this!? What kind of monsters are these Alchemists?"

With inhuman agility the boy jumped on top of the defendant's bench and then again away from the approaching guards. While still in the air, he threw three nearly spherical containers at the ground near the golems, causing the floor around them to burst into bright green flames, melting the magical runes controlling them and shutting them down. The guards backed away at the sight as the boy looked down on them. Somehow, he had jumped and then _jumped again while in the air._ Defying all logic, he now stood atop the judge's platform directly next to the terrified man himself.

"I really don`t care about you, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew just exactly who they're dealing with here, ehee."

"Guards, GUARDS!"

Plague jumped once again, at his apex reaching into his bag and pulling out more liquid containers. Just as he was about to fall into a guard's sword, he yet again jumped off of nothing but the air below him, straight towards the audience. As the guards gazed in awe at this feat, they failed to notice the bombs he had dropped at their feet, which soon exploded into a flurry of sparks, debris, and smoke that began to turn their armor to rust.

"I've got you now, you little brat!", There, as he landed, stood high magicist Arga, completely barefoot and wearing scraps of what was once a very expensive uniform.

Her beautiful face was wild with rage, her makeup ruined. But that didn`t matter to her now. All that mattered was that she caught the Plague of Pridemoor and squeezed out every little bit of what he knew. A ball of fire ignited and grew brightly in her hand.

"You can`t escape from this! It's over!" Indeed, the officials from the Magic guild had taken up positions all around the room, fireballs in hand as well.

"Yes, I suppose it is."

Plague put away his bag and stared intently at Arga and her officials, all sorcerers with more experience in magic than years he had been alive. Any false moves now and he knew he would have more than just some new burns to count on his body. More guards began to pour in from the entrance, some helping the ones now encased in rusted armor. The audience had mostly cleared away except for a few brave onlookers.

"I know you, you`re not going to give up that easily. I won`t be fooled twice!" She motioned for her subordinates to come closer, and they readied their spells in hand.

"Come on, I now you want to do it! Hee hee hee!"

She hated that laugh.

"Fire."

At that moment, a small cloaked figure whirled out of the line of guards directly into the mages' line of fire. With an unearthly grace, the fireballs slowed down and floated around the figure as it seemed to dance towards the boy. Unbelievably, the blasts hit the wall behind Arga in a perfect circular pattern as the figure came to rest beside the boy, a head taller, the air around her looking slightly peculiar. Her (she could see that the figure was a young girl from this close) hand raised in a position she could only describe as being between a dance and an obscene gesture egging her on. She had had enough of brats today though.

"What, another one? Roast them both!"

This time, Arga raised her own fireball, bright blue and reflecting the twisted grin in her expression. She and the other mages threw their own blasts all at once as well. The room glowed intensely with the concentrated heat, and her victory was assured. They might have to use ore healing magic than they thought before interrogating the two, but it would make everything all the easier in the end.

However, the room then became an embodiment of chaos with a flick of the girl's second the fireballs came near her, they began to spin around the room erratically, bouncing off walls and setting everything they could alight. The few remaining audience members began to flee in terror as the guards now hurried to catch and put out the flames, with the guild members, embarrassed and mortified, quickly tried to do so before them.

"I really hate field work."

Arga recognized that voice as she struggled to come to terms with the scene around her.

"You…you`re that girl!? You`re a Magic User?"

"No.", She said with a wide grin, the air around her now clearly visible.

"I`m an Alchemist too!"

Behind her and the boy beside her was a swirling mass of ever-changing transmutation symbols, directing the air every which way around them. Arga had never seen anything like it in all her years of magic research, and it terrified her more than she could ever let them know.

"We'll probably never be able to prove it was you who poisoned those people." Said the boy as he readied his satchel again.

The two of them then leapt through the air, tiny explosions now visible as they made their impossible midair leaps once again, now standing on top of the empty judges podium.

"But we just wanted to let you know."

The boy then began to shine with a pulsating glow, slowly at first, then more rapidly.

"We're not happy about it."

One leap.

"And we won`t stop our Alchemy!"

Two leaps.

"Not now."

A third leap, now from the girl, holding him.

"Not ever!"

Finally, the air below the boy seemed to explode with energy, and they burst through the roof of the burning building out into the starry, moonlit sky.

Although the blinding flash obscured nearly everything, Arga could make out one unmistakeable detail.

The two children were smiling from ear to ear.

The two figures bounced and exploded from rooftop to rooftop crisscrossing paths in the lime-colored light of the courthouse explosion.

This was it. This was the feeling she knew he lived for. The feeling she lived to create. The culmination of everything they had prepared for.

And it had worked beautifully.

The girl concentrated and closed her eyes as she started to see herself in her mind's image, dividing the image with a bolt of energy in the shape of the symbol for Mercury, cutting through those for salt and sulfur with the precision of an artisan. The image shattered, coalescing into a field around her.

"Out of the One, comes two."

She let out another burst of energy below her, and felt her worries and reservations releasing into the energy that propelled her upwards and forwards. This was her Alchemy, her life.

"Oooooooh Yeaaaahhhhhhh!"

"Did you see the look on her face? Hee!"

"I know! I thought she was going to lose it right there!"

The two eventually settled onto a roof at the far side of the village. Plague had dropped a few bombs at odd intervals to serve as decoys, as well as timed ones in out of the way alleys beforehand. The town guard was sure to spend the night searching everywhere except where they were going to be.

Catching his breath , Plague looked at Mona as he sat down and pulled out a straw to drink from his _Aqua Vitae 1%._ If one were to compare her to the bored, aloof girl he saw in the audience at the courthouse, one would never guess they were the same person.

Her medium-length, Jet black hair shone against the starlight as she stood triumphantly with her hands on her hips, her green skin nearly glowing as well.

"But Seriously! The way that our _Aqua Fortis_ went straight from Libra stage to Saggitarius and melted those runes clean off! It was just like in our notes! Plaugey, that was a thing of beauty!"

"Hee! Are you kidding me? You`re being far too modest! It was your casing that made it all possible. It would have melted clean through and destroyed everything else otherwise! Although that _Vitriol of Mars_ Transmutation Cluster of mine I admit will be a cornerstone of many future concoctions. Being able to stop those annoying guards in their tracks would be absolutely Vital to any future supply runs."

Plague then got a sheepish grin on his face as he got up from sitting and tried to cover his mouth.

"Eh, What is it?"

"You might even say… It'd be.. A Vital Vitriol.. Hee Hee Haaaaa!" Plague's face turned red as Mona rolled her eyes and sighed with a small smirk.

"That's you all right. Can`t make a joke to save your life. Heh, at least you`re a lot better of an alchemist than a comedian. Ha!"

Mona rubbed her knuckles on Plague's already messy hair.

"Ow! Good enough to get you to laugh at least!"

"I suppose so, eh?" Mona finally sat down with a sigh of relief. "That spectacle set us back on future research for at least two months, though."

The air around Mona seemed to coalesce and die down. Plague saw how surprisingly still and peaceful the town looked despite the green flicker of the night's work glowing in the distance. The Magic Guild stood proudly as a simulacrum of Pridemoor keep on the other edge of the village, while the blacksmith guild nearby was barely discernible from any of the other buildings, save for being larger and more sturdily built. Far in the distance, the Tower of Fate loomed. It would block the moonlight soon, but it was such an unchanging fixture in the sky that no one from Pridemoor would ever notice.

"Well, I suppose. Wouldn`t it be great to just be able to experiment any time we wanted, though?"

"Do that and we won`t be able to do anything for quite a while."

"Except, you know.. your brand of Alchemy."

Mona's expression was back to how it was during the courthouse. "Hey, I taught you some too."

"I know! And it`s Amazing! Hee hee!" Plague got up and leapt forward. Before hitting the ground again, a small burst of air flew from his feet as he was now back in his starting position. "All the things you can do with it! And that's just the surface! If I had known before…"

"Aw, come on Plague. You know that it's pretty limited and focused. Way too much like magic. Unless we can find some more writings on it, it may as well be a brick wall."

"More books! That would be quite a find! Ehee!"

"With potions and symbols, there's always something new to do, something new to see." Mona's eyes seemed to glow with a brightness that belied the rest of her expression.

"I wonder what kind of contest you`ll devise to see who reads the next one first. Hehe."

Mona stood up again, looking in the direction of the place where she slept. "Oh It'll be a good one. You might almost win this time."

"Hehee! We'll see about that!" Plague was glad to see her expression get back to how it was before, even slightly.

"I`ll see you tomorrow at the..Potionariuumm…ooooo."

Plague was surprised as he saw Mona get ready to leap away. "You`re actually going to go with it?"

"Why not? It's a good name!"

"Oh, thanks..hehee."

"No problem!"

Plague leapt down to street level, leaping again to soften the landing after he watched Mona's shadow fade into the night.

"Let's make it so we never have to worry about stopping." Plague said to himself as he walked over into a depression in the wall. Using the liquid coating his cloak, he drew out the symbol for Salt and the wall moved ever so slightly, allowing him to open it further to reveal his hideout.

A small bed, a stand, and an alchemic lantern stood in the corner of a stone-walled room.

Jumping into the bed, he thumbed through the pages before trying to sleep.

He tried desperately turn burn the expression Mona had in the moonlight into his memory, but her usual lethargic one always seemed to overtake it. Perhaps it was an aftereffect of her esoteric Alchemy. Souls interacted on a different level than people, he remembered from some of the texts he could remember from Mona's book.

In any case, his goal was clear. He never wanted Mona to have to make that dour face ever again.


	2. Prologue - Exoteric

Prologue – Exoteric

Three years before the tower fell

"Just to be clear, I am speaking to Plague Knight, correct?"

"Yes, yes you are."

"The guy I've known for over a decade."

"The very same Alchemist."

"The one with the cute bird mask?"

"...Yes."

"And yet, you are here, at the back end of nowhere, Pridemoor, taking on this insane mission to rescue someone we don`t even know, and isn`t even an Alchemist? I don`t buy it."

"Mona, I can prove it. As much as I love to hear your opinion on my sanity, I don`t think we have time for this, hee."

"Okay okay, just one quick thing before we get started. Why do dogs love trees?"

"Mona I seriously.."

"Pleeeease."

"Fine. I don`t know, Mona, why do dogs love trees?"

"Because... they have no bite, but a lot of Bark!"

Plague Knight desperately tried to hold it in, but hands covering the base of his mask only went so far. He started smirking, then holding his head down as well as his breath, but there was no escape.

"Hee...Hee.. HEaaahh!Hahahahahohohoheeeee! Oh for the love of... Hahahaa! Mona, why did you have to.. Hahahahaha!"

After a minute or so of sustained laughter, Mona finally chimed in on the Sonic Reverberator implanted in her ear, connecting to Plague Knight's.

"Yep, you`re Plague Knight all right."

"As long...hah..hah..as you`re..hah...satisfied..phew."

"You picked one doozy of a night to do this, actually. The guard is out in full from what I can see. From the rumors I picked up during initial recon, they somehow caught on that something is going to go down tonight. On top of their normal patrol, I heard they hired a mercenary or something to guard the inner prison."

Plague Knight looked over the compound from the hillside. Archvald prison was not known to be a beautiful place, but the contrast between the misty marshland that surrounded the compound, the moonlight from above, and the night Illuminations provided by the Prison's Magicist all over Archvald's interior and exterior walls made a soothing sight.

On the cliffs surrounding the facility, several tall guard towers stood, including the one he was standing below. The guards atop these towers had been fitted with magically enhanced vision, so he had to wait for specific intervals for their shifts to be changing to get near the place. Either that, or a much more proactive solution.

" "Or Something"? That's awfully vague." It was unlike Mona to leave out details.

"Yeah, I don`t like it either, but I was barely able to get even that using our tracked gold. It seems they're being more careful, changing up the moulds for the Royal Seal on real gold. I'd be flattered if it wasn't so annoying."

Plague Knight's expression turned slightly more serious beneath his mask. More than one unknown wasn`t something you wanted to deal with in any experiment.

"Don`t worry. I hate unknowns too. I packed your satchel with a few surprises of my own. They're prototypes, and I`m absolutely itching for a field test, so don`t be shy."

Plague Knight started to smile again. "I thought you said you hated field work?"

"I said I hate _doing_ field work. Seeing the results is awesome."

"Pragmatic as always."

There were a few minutes of silence as Plague Knight heard a muffled scream through his Sonic Resonator. He wasn`t worried, as there was a brief flash at the far guard tower from where he stood. Plague Knight twirled his Staff of Surging in contentment. It was time to begin.

"Shhhh.. Sleepy time Mister Guard.. You`re all clear, Plague Knight. You better give me a good show. I`m missing out on precious beauty sleep for this."

"You? Sleep? That's a good one. You`re always in the lab."

"Ain't it the truth. Good Luck! And... stay safe Plaguey."

The Resonator cut out as Mona turned off the signal. For such a practical device, the Sonic Resonator relied on a mass of linked transportation circles at an almost impossibly small level, making it a bit of a hazard to take it into combat while active.

With the towers all unmanned now, Plague knight leapt off the cliffside, leaping again as he reached the apex of his jump, from the middle of the air. He felt the cool night breeze flow through the filters in his beaked mask as gravity struggled to keep up with someone who refused to play by its rules, as he tapped into the transmutation circles within his boots and activated a Float burst, sending him even higher into the air with a nearly silent blast, but this time, gently floating forward towards the high wall at the edge of Archvald.

He was heading slowly towards the edge of the prison, with the railing of the stoneworked wall just a yard or so away. He wasn`t going to make it. Normally.

Tapping into the power of his staff, it glowed a bright purple as he thrust upwards and forwards at a fantastic rate, vaulting him over the wall and onto the guard walkway. He had just cleared a hundred foot gap without touching the ground.

"The warden says to be extra careful tonight, but I don`t believe it for a second."

Plague Knight could hear two guards approaching in their clanking armor, and quickly hid in a shadow.

"I don`t know. Did you see that guy that just came in? That thing he brought with him? Wow.."

"Aw, he's probably trying to scare us. Ever since Oswald started that food fight earlier, he's had a strict "No foolin' " Policy."

"Yeah, but still I.."

The guards turned a corner on the walkway as Plague Knight stepped out of hiding to take a look at the inner prison. He had little time to wonder what "that thing" was. He needed to make sure that the lay of the land matched up with the schematic.

Down on the ground, he could see an expansive prison work field, lit up with magical lights. Fields of large chunks of ore brought in from the nearby mountain were begin chipped into smaller pieces to be processed into metal. The mining industry was one of the most profitable in the entire kingdom, and he had known that several other Knights Errant based their combat style around digging and mining.

Even now, late into the night, he saw several prisoners busy at work while guards oversaw their progress. Smaller chunks of rock were loaded into minecarts that were placed on a rail, which was flowing into a building near the main prison block. This smaller block was the ore processing center, where the material was melted down under extreme heat to purify the metals within.

"Yep. It's in there. However, this is.."

Plague Knight looked at the door itself. It was mechanically set to only open when a minecart was near, escorted by a prisoner and a guard, specifically by the gear system interlocking the cart railway and door.

"Problematic. Hee.."

He didn`t want to make this more complicated than it had to be, but the schematic he had found had merely told him this was a guarded doorway. Quickly and quietly, Plague Knight managed to sneak down and around the ramparts while avoiding light sources and patrolling guards. He soon stood on the ground floor of the outdoor prison, his beaked mask catching the light and casting a brief shadow that looked like a large crow midflight.

"Why are we still here? Seriously? Lights out was hours ago!", said one guard. "The Warden said the more eyes out here, the better. Also, any prisoner who spots an intruder or someone trying to escape gets double rations tomorrow."

The guard captain on duty made sure to shout this proclamation loud and clear for all the prisoners working to hear. While night work was highly unusual, the promise of a reward served to boost their spirits.

Plague Knight could barely contain his enthusiasm, but set his scheme into motion. At that moment, a large explosion rang out amongst some supply crates on the western wall of the prison, far from where Plague Knight stood.

"This is it! He's here!"

The guards and prisoners both exclaimed hurriedly as they rushed towards the sound of one of Plague Knight's remote black powder bombs.

Slowed by their chains, the prisoners tried to hurry as much as they could, leaving their mining equipment behind, as well as their minecarts.

Now was his chance. Plague Knight hurried and scattered the bombs for the next phase of his plan and buried himself in the ore within a minecart, his relatively small body fitting in the container quite well.

It was then that he activated his next set of remote charges, both on the Eastern Wall and scattered all around the work field.

It was then that the prison turned into absolute Chaos. Alarm bells rang out everywhere.

"We're under attack! We're Under attack! All guards to battle stations! Prisonders to their cells! Get the Ore inside! Hurry! Hurry!"

All around, sounds of the massive pandemonium could be heard as Guards clashed with prisoners still trying to spot the "Intruder" as they were being forced back into the main prison block, as some of the stronger prisoners were made to hurriedly pass the remaining minecarts filled with ore through the mechanical door.

Plague Knight could feel the sound of gears clicking and turning as his minecart was loaded onto the railway and began to proceed through the door. As he passed over the threshold, he could immediately feel the heat of the processing center lapping at his brow. He was glad that he wore robes alchemically adapted to cooling today, even if it meant he was consistently a bit chilly outside.

"That should be all of them!", shouted a guard. "Take them to processing right away, and then get back to your cells."

"Are you serious, Commander?", said another guard."We'll miss the whole thing!"

The commanding guard could be heard clanking over to the one who just spoke out. "Now listen here, Oswald. The Warden is even more paranoid tonight than usual, and with good reason, first with that thing lurking about and now this crazy intruder. You need to straighten up, and do your job. In fact, I want you to personally see to it that all of these minecarts go in for ore processing. Right Now. All of them. Everyone else, escort the prisoners back to their cells. You`ve seemingly been given an early reprieve."

 _Right Now? All of them?_

Why did things always have to be so complicated?

"Yes sir, right away.", grumbled Oswald. Plague Knight heard the disgruntled guard as the sound of the minecarts linking together and being slowly pushed forward on the railway through to a second door.

As another door could be heard opening, Plague Knight felt the temperature go from nearly uncomfortable to absolutely sweltering as the minecarts were pushed forwards.

The sounds of machinery clanking and bubbling molten metal flowing could be heard as Plague Knight knew he was entering Ore Processing proper.

"Stupid commander..", muttered Oswald. "I didn`t even start that foodfight. I just slipped is all."

The carts were drawing closer and closer to the edge of something, as the sound of the minecarts switching from being pushed to being on an automatic track made a distinct sound.

"I should just drop the minecarts in too..serves them.r.r.r.."

Oswald froze in terror as he saw a nightmarish figure walk toward him. Illuminated by the glow of the molten ore, a figure cloaked in darknees save for an inhuman face with a pale beak looking like a ghastly bird was holding an orb of blackish liquid in its hand.

"Nn..nno..Please… Don`t kill me.. I'll be good.. I swear.. I`m too young…" Oswald was quaking in terror as the figure slowly walked forward. From what he could see, it was only him and the figure in the main processing room. He had no doubt that the sound of the machinery would prevent his screaming form being heard, but that wouldn`t stop him from trying.

"Okay, I admit it! I slipped on purpose because I thought It'd be funny! I sometimes take early breaks and let the prisoners alone for a few minutes before the next guard shows up! I`ll do anything! Just please don`t…you`re a bit shorter than I thought.."

At that moment, The figure seemed to stare daggers at him, and threw a succession of spheres at him until he blacked out, his armor and sword slowly disintegrating.

"Am I really that short?", thought Plague Knight.

Trying to put the depressing thought out of his mind, Plague Knight surveyed the area and saw a mechanical wonderland. Everywhere around him and the unconscious guard were machines bustling with furnaces melting ore, transporting it, and moulding it into all sorts of various useful shapes. The "waterfalls" of molten metal were especially haunting.

"Tinker would have a field day here, Hee Hee!", thought the Alchemist out loud.

Nevertheless, it was time to get to work. Now that the path behind him was closed off, the only way to the inner cells was…down.

Plague Knight rummaged through his satchel and plucked out a few of the few things that weren't bombs.

These three were special, opaque containers concealing a green, gooey substance Mona had told him to test before using. It was supposed to have the unique property to transmute molten rock into a cool, gelatinous slime for a brief period.

"Well, Let's see."

The Alchemist threw one of the vials at a nearby molten fall, its Lob-style casing making it arc into the air automatically as he threw.

In a flash, the green goo hit the fall and it immediately solidified and turned to a gelatinous slime of the same color.

"Astounding. Where on Earth did you get this, Mona?"

Soon, the machinery started to grunt and moan harder due to the stalled flow of the ore, and Plague Knight could see the green fall slowly turn back to its usual molten metal state, lethal heat radiating off of it once again.

"So that's it then. Twenty seconds exactly." Plague knight looked over the main vat and saw an exhaust vent. From the schematic, he knew that this part of the ventilation system connected with the deep cells. Getting in would save him valuable time lost by taking this unfortunate detour.

"Hee hee. Let's do it!"

Without Hesitation, Plague Knight stuffed all but one of the bottles back into his satchel and dove into the gigantic main vat like a madman, hurtling towards the lethal lava below.

"Now, Burst!", Charging his float burst once again, Plague knight bounded upwards in midair as he tossed the vial down into the bubbling pit below, and in a flash everything red around him turned to green.

"Yes!"

Plague Knight stopped his float and landed on a patch of green gelatin that was moments ago thousands of degrees hotter.

Quickly, the force of the landing bounced him from green patch to green patch, off of spots on walls, directly towards the vent he sought.

"And here's a little Mona Special! Hee hee haa!" Plague Knight threw out two spheres with black powder and a unique, bladelike casing.

They whirled back and forth in the air, the first explosion loosening the grate, the second dislodging it completely.

However, the time had almost run out. Charging up another burst, Plague Knight scrambled through the air as quickly as he could as the burst activated, sending him hurtling through the opening just as the air around him was starting to heat up hundreds of degrees.

Scrambling on all fours, Plague Knight crawled through the vent as fast as he could towards the deep cells, his Mask protecting him from the deadly fumes that flowed through and outward.

Eventually, the temperature slowly returned to normal. He could hear footsteps above him, so according to the schematic he was likely near the Warden's main audience hall.

"Look at this! Look. At. This." ,said the voice of an older man with the affectation of a noble who knew his way around commoners.

"My prison in chaos! Ore everywhere. Walls exploding for nothing! I paid quite a significant sum for you and that monster, and I expect results! The Mechanist and Blacksmith guilds, not to mention our other more discrete clients, are pressing us as hard as is for more Iron. This kind of thing causes delays that I simply cannot afford!"

"I understand sir, but you must realize, I was hired on the condition that I was to stop any intruders or escapees."

Another voice spoke, this one more grizzled, but younger and with the edge of someone who had lived outside normal means."That, I assure you, I can and will do. However, an intruder has yet to be sighted. All we have to go on is a few explosions in the work yard. Those may very well have been set up by knight errants or people such as myself hired by rival…ore processors. The rumor of escape may have just been a diversion set by your informant."

Plague Knight continued on, but remained close. He wanted to hear exactly how his plan had been leaked. From what he knew, no one was supposed to have known he was going to break him out tonight, except for Mona, and he knew for certain she would not do anything like that.

"A diversion?! My good sir, are you insinuating that my connection at the Machinist Guild is trying to sell me out? I have known Revmore for years! He was specific.. an escape attempt.. tonight!"

The conversation went on with who Plague Knight assumed to be the warden continuing to rant on and on about his actions tonight, this time he succeeded in holding back a laugh. He was extremely close.

Plague Knight smiled as he saw the vents tip downward further below the prison. This meant he was heading towards the deep cells, the area of the prison where the offenders who the kingdom wanted to never see the light of day again were held, those who commited unspeakable crimes and caused fear by the mere spread of their names.

By now, most were quite old, but one in particular had not been in there for relatively long. This was the person Plague Knight was sent to break out.

Seeing a grate facing downwards at the floor, Plague Knight tried to kick it open, but wasn`t strong enough and his feet merely bounced off. With a sigh, he took out a basic black powder bomb and threw it at the grate, causing a minor explosion and making it fall to the floor with a silence-breaking crash.

Plague Knight had little to fear from the sound. Most of the prisoners down here were long since broken by years of isolation with guards ordered to stay completely silent as they offered nothing but food and water at regular intervals, then left.

For once, something went according to how he had initially planned it, as there were no guards anywhere in sight, just old, dejected men, asleep in corners of cells.

The Alchemist did his best to ignore them and moved forwards, knowing that the one he was looking for was further down. The hallways were made of musty stone, tinged a deep blue by the magical lights that were only rarely maintained and quite dim. The smell of the area would have been absolutely unbearable if it wasn`t for Plague Knight's mask.

"Geez, This is depressing. Now where is that cell?"

As Plague Knight continued to walk forward, he could hear the soft sound of humming. With renewed vigor, he headed towards the cell where the noise was coming from.

Sure enough, this was it, D1789.

Plague Knight wasted no time and blew open the door with a quick blast.

"Humm.. Ho Hummm.. Why Hellooo good bird sir! I was wondering when my escort would arrive! These conditions are rather abominable, if I may say so. I demand to be taken to a better dormitory, post haste!"

Plague Knight could not believe his eyes. There, in front of him, was a tall horseman sipping what he hoped was tea from a cup, while sitting with his legs crossed at a makeshift table.

"By any chance, are you..Percival?"

"My good bird sir, that is _Sir Percival_ to you! Percy to my friends, but never just Percival. Please sir bird, have _some_ etiquette!"

"Listen, _Sir Percival,_ I'm Plague Knight, a knight Errant sent to get you out of here. By the way, I`m not a bird, this is just a mask."

At that moment, Sir Percival's demeanor changed immediately. "Why, forgive me good sir b... Plague Knight! I had no idea my escort would be a fellow noble knight! You may lead the way! Please do so Post Haste!"

The horseman stood at attention and immediately followed Plague Knight out of his cell door, yammering all the way.

"Honestly, these people, not even a single one would even spare so much as a passing word. Not even my attendants! And the food… How could I even begin to…"

Plague Knight did his best to tune out the horseman's babbling as they walked towards the vent where he came in, through the winding and disgusting hallways which Sir Percival seemed to barely notice as he continued his rant.

"Now, Sir Gainsley.. there was a good man.. if only he was here, there would be.."

"Sir Percival, Please, if you would." Plague Knight interrupted, hoping that he wasn`t just now facing the most maddening and torturous part of his mission.

Plague Knight pointed towards the hole in the ceiling, and suddenly realized a major problem.

The Horseman was significantly wider than the ceiling opening.

"My good sir, I do see that is a rather unfortunate hole in the ventilation system of this establishment. However, it rather pales in comparison to the other serious issues I see here!"

"No, that's not what I mean. I mean we have to find.."

"Yes! Of course! We must find the Concierge! He will surely know to send some maids and butlers to fix this place right up! Tally Ho!"

With that, Percy bolted forward on all fours, galloping though the dimly lit halls.

Plague Knight realized what he was going to do and turned pale.

"No, you idiot! Stop!"

Plague Knight ran forward as fast as he could, jumping and bounding, using his burst to try to catch up to the mad horseman.

"Come along, Plague Knight! The game is afoot!"

Sir Percival yelled along as he continued to gallop tirelessly.

The area slowly became more and more well maintained and well lit as the two started to come across stairwells that Plague Knight would have thought would at least slow down Sir Percival, but instead nearly seemed to make him faster as he ran on two legs up the sets of stairs.

Plague Knight had never ran and jumped this much in a single day in his entire life, even in intense Burst training regimens.

"Just who is this, 'Sir Percival'?"

Plague Knight had no time to think as he was interrupted by an even more troubling sound.

"Who is this?"

"Is that a Prisoner? Hey, we need some help over here!"

Crap.

Plague Knight soon found himself in well lit and maintained hallways as Guards were rushing all around him.

"I don`t have time for this!"

Plague Knight grabbed a few standard bombs from his satchel and threw them as he bounded and burst forward, the sounds of confusion and armor rusting up left behind him.

"My word, you are all quite rude! I merely need to find the concierge desk! Let's see, it's usually by the check-in…"

Plague Knight could hear the sound of guards being kicked about as Percy babbled on. At least he wasn't too far ahead of him.

However, he had stopped seeing normal prison cells and had now started seeing offices.

Finally, he spotted a large room with double doors, and Percy finally standing still in the room ahead. Without thinking, Plague Knight bounded forwards and caught up to his quarry.

"Now…Listen..here…you…heh…", Plague Knight finally caught his breath. "I am here to rescue you!"

However, Sir Percival was not looking at Plague Knight as his words echoed throughout the room. He was looking at the huge crowd of guards surrounding the large audience chamber, with an older man with a large, grey mustache and a grim-looking younger man with a whip standing next to him atop a balcony.

"See?! Hah! I told you! I told you all! Prison. Break! My information is never wrong!"

"When you're right, you're right, boss.", said the younger man as he leapt down from the ledge with minimal effort, his hand at his whip and ready.

"You`re a slippery one, small fry, but it looks like you couldn`t keep your eyes on the prize."

Plague Knight pushed Sir Percival backwards as he stood to confront this new challenger.

"I have no interest in fighting you, as much fun as it would be to test out my new components. Let us go and none will be harmed."

The room erupted with laughter, even eliciting a chuckle from the man with the whip.

"My good sir Plague Knight.", whispered Sir Percival. "I do believe in fact that this is not a hotel and there may be no concierge."

Plague Knight rolled his eyes beneath his mask, while the man with the whip continued.

"Well, I have an interest in fighting you. 20% interest actually." A loud roar could be heard outside the room, sending chills down the spines of the guards and even the warden. "Compounded by the Hour!"

The man slashed his whip to the ground, and a gigantic beast, nearly 30 feet tall, crashed through the doorway, sending some guards flying.

Plague Knight gulped. This was definitely something he did not expect.

A Raid Gryph. A gigantic gryphon bred specifically for war. Its red and black feathers accented by its maddened eyes and gold armor, only barely under the constraint of its master's commands. The beasts were known to take out entire battalions and were mainly used for the siege of castles. Clearly, the warden did not know the meaning of the word "overkill".

"Raiga! It's dinner time!" The man whipped twice and rang a silver bell.

The beast bellowed, walking forward as the guards and Warden scattered in fear.

"Sir Percival.. I suggest you run."

For once, the horseman had nothing to say as he bolted around the room as the beast bellowed and smashed its claws against the ground, causing a quake and breaking through to the floor below as Plague Knight jumped to avoid the shock of the impact.

"Let's start with this!"

Plague Knight took to the air and threw three Black Powder bombs at the beast in quick succession.

Out of the smoke, the beast continued to lunge forward as he barely managed to dodge.

 _Not even phased._

More importantly, the beast's armor hadn`t even lost it's luster.

 _Must be Orichalcum, or perhaps mythril.. better take notes..hee hee,_ Plague Knight thought to himself as the beast bellowed, this time its eyes beginning to glow red.

Cautiously, Plague Knight landed. He had a feeling he knew what was next.

With a screech, the Raid Gryph unleashed a sinuous blast of fire from its mouth, ravaging the room and blasting through several more lower floors of the building.

Plague Knight jumped and then burst away, but before he could react again, it unleashed a second blast.

"Oh come on!", The Alchemist barely had time to jump away as his robes were singed by the fire. He couldn`t completely clear the distance, and crashed near a broken wall, where behind him he could hear the sounds of mechanical clanking.

 _The Refinery._

Confronting this monster on a level playing field was a losing game. He had to tip the odds in his favor.

"Follow me if you want a hot meal, Bird Cat!", taunted Plague Knight as he jumped forwards into the wreckage of the audience room, towards the sounds of machinery.

From the sidelines, as the guards were cheering on the beast, Percy watched from behind some of the rubble. Thankfully, he had been forgotten in the commotion.

Normally, a situation like this was cause for him to run away and live another day, but that diminutive knight had not only saved him from what he now realized was a prison cell, but held his own against a gigantic monster, all to get him out of jail.

"Why.. Why am I developing a conscience now?!", said Percy as he banged his hoof on his head.

Meanwhile Plague Knight continued to artfully jump from gear to gear while the beast followed, smashing through most of the equipment around them, threatening to bring down the facility.

"Try a taste of this!"

Plague Knight took out another one of Mona's new creations, something she called Cluster Powder.

He threw it directly at the beast's face and a resounding explosion was heard throughout the prison, as a piercing, feral scream let out of the beast's beak among the smoke.

 _Did that do it?_

Plague Knight soon had his answer as an enraged Raid Gryph came barreling towards him, its face covered in blood and eyes shot with rage. It was merely hungry before. Now, it was _angry._

 _Perfect._

Plague Knight turned around, running towards the beast and slid under its belly as it flew, lunging for him. The Raid Gryph crashed into even more equipment, throwing gears and chains everywhere, many of them getting caught in its armor.

In a mad dash, he hurried over to the main vat, making sure the beast could see him.

"Over here! Hee!", he said while waving to the monster.

Without another thought, he jumped into the vat, letting loose the final bottle of green slime, transforming the molten metal around him into harmless green goo.

 _Twenty seconds_

The Raid Gryph jumped in after him, its beak and claws ready to rip him into Alchemist shreds.

 _Ten seconds_

Plague Knight closed his eyes and thought of Mona's last words to him as he hurtled towards the goo at the bottom of the pit.

"Stay safe. Heee.."

 _Five Seconds_

Plague Knight, with the Raid Gryph less than a yard away from him, hit the green goo hard, and his momentum was transferred into force upwards, launching him past the beast straight up, while the Raid Gryph, With its sharp claws and beak, plunged into the sticky substance below, its wings getting wrapped in it while its heavy armor and the gears and chains stuck in it weighted it down.

 _Two seconds_

Plague Knight's Momentum carried him far out of the vat, but a final air jump and then a burst was needed to land him gracefully where he originally stood, the man with the whip dumbfounded and the warden and guards looking mortified and terrified.

 _Now_

At that moment, the Green Goo surrounding the Raid Gryph suddenly turned to molten metal as the man with the whip, the warden, and all the guards watched as the once invincible beast screamed in agony as its feathers burned, its orichalcum armor heated up to ludicrous levels and burning the flesh of the beast below as the goo that had gotten inside the beast's mouth was now both poisoning and turning its insides into a more distasteful type of ooze.

"You…you killed Raiga!", The man with the whip was visibly enraged almost to the point of tears.

"G..Guards! Don`t just stand there!", the man bellowed.

Plague Knight took a step forward.

The guards took three steps back, and the man with the whip tripped backwards, Plague Kngiht now standing over him.

"I gave you a chance. Hee Hee Hee.", he said

Watching with a look of terror, Plague Knight took a basic boob from his satchel and threw it at the man, dissolving his light armor and knocking him out instantly.

"You.. w..what are you? Some Kind of bounty hunter? Or a High-Class Knight Errant? Whoever is paying you I`ll double it!", said the Warden, with the guards now in complete disarray.

"Heee.. maybe we can work something out later. Hee hee! But for now.." Plague Knight looked around and saw a horseman with a makeshift slingshot skulking around the outskirts of the battle area. Curiously, he fired a small pebble into what remained of the warden's building.

It then collapsed instantly.

 _What._

"There is no time, hurry good sir!", shouted Percy as he scooped up Plague Knight and ran with him towards the outskirts of the prison.

"But I didn`t even get to tell them I was an Alchemist!"

The small knight tried and struggled to get out of the horseman's grip, finally managing to stop him as they came across one of the prison's catapults.

"Look, I can see you're a ballistics expert. We can use this to escape! Just set the trajectory for around that watchtower!"

Sir Percival stopped and looked at Plague Knight strangely. "Good Sir, I believe you`re not thinking quite right."

Plague knight rolled his eyes once again.

"These things are made for war velocities! If we just got in this ourselves, we'd be squashed into two handsome smears on the ground when we landed!"

"I just killed a giant monster with lava."

"Fair Enough."

Sir Percival managed to set the trajectory on the catapult, and got on with Plague Knight.

"Now hold on to me."

"My good sir are you su..Ahhh!"

With that, the duo began to fly through the sky at incredible speeds, Sir Percival nearly crying as they did. With a sigh, Plague Knight activated his float burst.. just as he saw the Raid Gryph coming up behind them…

"Oh you gotta be kidding me! Seriously?! That was Lava!"

"JUST THROW SOMETHING AT IT!", screamed Percy.

With a sigh, Plague Knight took out one final bomb he had meant to save for Mona to see. Hopefully she could from where she was standing. It was their finest work, marked with a tulip on its casing.

"Flowers of Antimony."

As the half-dead beast bellowed and screamed at them, bones exposed and flesh burning, all it could think about was revenge. That smaller bird, somehow, it had done this, and…

Clink!

Splash!

The Raid Gryph felt a tingle on the edge of its beak, which then spread thoughout its body like a wave. Slowly, it felt itself covered with tiny metallic particles, seeping into its skin, fusing with its bone and weighing it down. Then, Suddenly.

Explosions. Thousands of them covered the Raid Gryph's body, bursting it open from every single cell in its body into tiny metallic shards forming glistening fluorescent lights in the sky, finally ending with a gigantic burst that lit up the world, forming a flower among the stars.

On the ground, a tall, green-skinned woman saw the explosion, and smiled, with a tear in her eye.

Sir Percival was astounded at the sight as Plague Knight turned around to look at it himself as the two gently floated to the ground in front of her.

"My Word...Just who..what.. in the world are you?"

Mona walked forward, standing next to Plague Knight, who barely came up to her shoulder. "We, Mr. Percival, are Alchemists. Now I believe we have an appointment to keep with our boss?"

"Hee Hee! That went off splendidly, wouldn`t you say?"

"Oh you`re gonna give me every detail later. The Flowers of Antimony in action. I still can't believe we did it..."

Mona's face was beaming, with a tear in her eye as Plague Knight looked on. Everything he had just gone through had been more than worth it. "It was your basic design, truly inspired!"

"Oh look at Mr. Modest here! Heh!"

Mona looked down at Plague Knight with great admiration. Although it was her design, it was his implementation, encouragement, and bursts of inspired technical wizardry that got her through the hard spots. He never gave himself enough credit.

"Excuse me you two, did I hear right, You were * gulp * Alchemsits? As in..."

"Yep! Alchemia Knight needs you for something important!"

"It must have been to want someone to break you out...hee!"

Percy looked back nervously. "Uh...You wouldn`t perhaps mind taking me back to prison...would you?"


	3. 1st Esoteric Reaction

**PLAGUE OF BEGINNINGS**

 **A Story of Alchemy**

 **Part 1: Teach me how**

1st Esoteric Reaction – The Solitary One and Two

17 years before the tower fell

"That would be the second dynasty of Inita, Emperor Gran the Gold, so named for his insistence that gold be kept as the standard for currency instead of that printed from the printing presses. At the insistence of the magicist guild, this was due to the fact that metal was easier to place charms onto to track and avoid counterfeiting., while paper was more valuable for storing magical scrolls and knowledge. "

"Once again, Mona, that is absolutely correct. Excellent work."

In reality, Mona had simply repeated a paraphrase of what she had read in her history book moments before the teacher asked. As long as the Magistra believed she was paying attention, she didn`t actually need to, so answering easy questions that appeared hard to the rest of the class by way of a complicated sounding answer was the best way she found to be left alone for most of the day. With an inaudible, bored sigh, she went back to daydreaming until the day was over, or the next opportunity. Whichever came first. She would be ready for it. Appearing smart seemed to accomplish the same role as actually being smart in subjects you had no interest in, with far less effort involved.

The small classroom sat idly as the somewhat tall ten year old girl in front of them sat back in her seat. Most of them were the children of tradesmen and women; blacksmiths, scribes, farmers, and even some of the lower-ranked magicists and machinists. Needless to say, Magistra Gloria's history lesson had less to do with their future than the things they would learn from their parents on non-school days, but some were curious and even interested, taking it all in as if it was a tale told by the storyteller.

There wasn`t much else to do besides listen in the classroom, as its musty wooden walls and creaky floors had little else to look at besides a few bookshelves with a mottled assortment of textbooks of varying age, difficulty level, and size.

Mona studied the chalk in the Magistra's hand.

 _The original Gypsum crystal… I bet it looked amazing… and useful as a source of Calcium Sulfate and to detoxify water. I wonder if I can.._

Mona's thoughts were cut off as the sun began to pierce at her eyes though one of the cloudy windows. This meant it was time to go soon. Back to that place, and then back home.

"That will be all for today! Make sure you remember to study for the exam on Friday!"

Mona never studied.

She didn`t need to, or rather she didn`t study things that didn`t interest her, just as she was sure that the other children didn`t really care about what they were learning unless it benefitted their futures or piqued their interest in some way. Still, she was thankful for the fact that her comprehension was better than most; as long as she heard something while paying even half attention, she found she was usually able to apply it to the Magistra's Exams.

An above average placement was what she aimed for. Good enough to stay in good graces, while not good enough to warrant special attention. She remembered all too well what happened when she applied herself fully to schoolwork.

Stepping off her chair, she merged with the flow of the twenty or so students flowing out of the royally-mandated basic education classroom, neither in front nor at the back, but not exactly in the middle of the line either.

The streets of Pridemoor in this district were winding down for the day, as marketers were closing and some opportunistic children where hurrying to buy some breads before going back home or out to play.

Mona ignored most of them and headed further in to the academic district before heading back to where she would normally go. Today was a Tuesday, which meant a unique horsecart would be passing by any second..

Now.

 _Yes! It came today!_

The research cart for the old ruins was sure enough passing by, getting ready to unload its contents at the magicist guild tonight. Excitedly, Mona ran back to where she had her next obligation, not even caring that she caught the attention of a few people she passed on the street as she rushed on through.

"You were almost late, Mona.", the voice that rang out sounded with a harsh concern as the green girl bolted through the doorway and into the kitchen.

"I prefer to say that I was right on time!" , snarkily replied the little cook.

In a flash, Mona put on her apron as the woman in charge of her let out a sigh. "I expect the usual quality, little miss! No slacking and no rushing!"

"R...right! Of course!"

In reality, Mona could barely think about the large meal she had to prepare for the rest of the orphans as she hurriedly gathered ingredients and set the cauldron to boil underneath the hearth.

Madam Isolda knew that Mona cooked better and faster than any of the others, though her cleaning was so positively awful that even when she was given corporal punishment, she still managed to somehow make the floor _dirtier_ , with tears in her eyes and bruises and all. It was simpler to cut her losses and move cleaning duties to some of the other children that had misbehaved that day instead of nearly working a single one to death. Thanks to the new census measures, she would have to answer for it if she actually did.

Mona, meanwhile was still busy gathering ingredients and getting her recipes in order. Today was pasta, one of her absolute favorites to sneak tastes of before she served everyone else.

The Tomatoes and Onions were set all in a row, along with a few garlic cloves that she had peeled last night before she went to sleep. In a rush, Mona started cutting them into shapes and patterns, arranging them into the shape of a circle with a wooden bowl in the middle. Using her finger smeared with some oil, she quickly drew a pattern between the vegetables and then pressed her hands against it, letting some of her life energy flow into the pattern.

Around her, the ingredients were bathed in a glow of red light, as in a brief second, the area was surrounded in a flash as the bowl in the middle now shook, full of neatly mashed tomatoes, onions, and garlic into a delicious smelling sauce that Mona inhaled deeply with a dreamly look in her eyes.

"Just a bit more spice!", she said while smiling naughtily.

With a few shakes of some containers, the _Sauce a La Mona_ , as she called it, was neatly and perfectly blended together in a large batch of creamy goodness. All she needed to do was set it above the cauldron to heat up before serving.

Now of course, was the next part, the pasta itself. She gathered the flour and water into a bowl and began to stir…

In a few hours, it was sundown, and the rest of the children at Rangheel Orphanage had come in from their various chores and activities they participated in after schooling.

The long table in the dining hall was set with various plates and silverware, with the two largest plates at the ends of the table, for Madam Isolda and Miss Ilvari.

"Meal's up Everybody!", shouted Mona as she pushed a large cart in with two large bowls and several smaller plates below.

She spread the plates, all with freshly warmed and spices bread she had taken from their stores and spiced herself with oils and garlic.

Within seconds, the children began to rush in and fill their seats, while two adults, an older woman and a younger woman, gradually walked to theirs at the ends of the table.

All this time, Mona had been filling up plates with alternating ladles of pasta and sauce, quickly moving along and making sure the hungriest looking children got served first, while Madam Isolda and Miss Ilvari always getting the biggest portions. By the end of her journeys 'round the long table, the pasta had been all taken and the sauce had been left to nearly nothing. The other children may have said some things to her, but she knew better than to listen.

With her work done, Mona hurried the cart off back to the kitchen. She had eaten what she could earlier while cooking, and loved to use her finger to get the remaining sauce out of the large bowl and into her mouth.

 _Now, let's get to it!_

Mona turned around in a flash to get to her closet, but ran face first into Miss Ilvari.

"Oh… I'm sorry.. I`m really sorry… I just.."

Miss Ilvari gently pushed Mona off her dress and calmly patted her head. "It's okay, Mona! It was my mistake too. I actually came in here to just tell you something."

Miss Ilvari's kind face looked down, seeing Mona's nervous expression, never quite looking her in the eye.

"I just wanted to thank you for that lovely meal, and to just say that if you ever need help with it, I`ll be there. Okay?"

Mona relaxed slightly, "You..you`re not supposed to thank a toadskin… it's bad luck…", Mona hated that name, but she didn`t like the thought of Miss Ilvari getting into trouble because of her. She was barely allowed to stay in the orphanage as is, since her green skin was an ill omen, reminding people of dragons. She had long made peace with the fact that she would never be adopted.

"Well sweetheart, I believe if you do a good job, and especially one as good as that, then you should be thanked at the very least. I know you`re smarter than those school papers show. I`m sure you`ll be a great Magicist one day. "

Mona's heart seemed to rise and sink simultaneously. "Y…yes. T..thank you Miss Ilvari. I`m a bit tired."

Without another word, Mona tried to shake off the conflicting feelings in her head and get back on track. The one good thing about being a toadskin was that no one cared if you were gone when you didn`t have any jobs to do.

She hurried into her closet at the end of the hallway where she slept, trying as best she could to contain her excitement. It was nearly time, but she couldn`t wait. She took a lick of saliva from her mouth and drew a crude symbol on the wooden wall behind her. Placing her hand onto it, a dim flash of light grew, and the wood gently parted open as if it was alive and breathing.

There it was, her most treasured possession.

 _The Scientific Journal of Zosimos, Volume One_

She hugged it and hurried through the wall to a small opening to the outside. There was a crude ladder made of old sheets and rope she had found, leading to the orphanage roof. Quickly, she climbed it, seeing the emerging night sky, while clutching the book deeply.

As the wind blew through her long hair, she opened the book to one of her favorite passages.

Mona sighed in bliss.

While the book was a scientific journal, it was written like a love letter.

Zosimos, from what she could see, was a tremendously talented Alchemist, peerless in his era. Mona had read over and over the work he had done with potions and circles, elements and mixtures, and absorbed it all.

The ability to take something, break it down and make something different with the exact same things.

 _Alchemy._

When Zosimos wrote about Alchemy, he wrote about it in a way that seemed to dance off the page, explaining his tools and methods as if he was an excited schoolchild, even though Mona knew he had to have been much older.

There was one particular piece that she knew had to have been close to Zosimos's heart. These were the few passages he quoted from a woman he called the greatest mortal alchemist to ever yet live, Maria Prophitessa. He was clearly obsessed with the thought of her, though she was apparently gone for several hundreds of years before he had been born.

The phrase that stuck out to both Zosimos and Mona, however, was the one so central to the core of Alchemical study that it was called the Axiom.

"Out of the One comes Two, out of Two comes Three, and from the Third comes the One as the Fourth."

Mona must have read Zosimos's notes on it hundreds of times. The infinite possibility of the universe inside everything and everyone around us, The ability to become better than you were while still being you.

The possibility of the truth of this paradox sent Mona's head into a tizzy.

And then, a year ago, she unlocked something within her.

"Out of the one, comes Two."

Mona's body seemed to become lighter as alchemical symbols, barely visible, swirled around her, and then spoke to her.

"How are you doing? You need me again tonight?" It was Mona's voice, and at the same time, it wasn`t.

"Nice to see ya, Two! I have a great feeling about tonight! The wagon came! I saw it earlier! It might..It Might…!"

"Hold your horses, Mona.", said Two, the name Mona had given to the voice that seemed to liberate and protect her. "We've been disappointed before, remember?"

Mona's attitude relaxed, "Yeah Yeah," She said while closing her eyes and waving her arm at the general direction of the swirling air. "But I got a reeeeal good feeling here! Heh!"

Mona then fearlessly leapt off the edge of the orphanage roof as Two hurried blow and booster her at the apex of her leap, then softening her landing as she arrived on the next roof, her beloved book strapped to her back.

"Two!", yelled Mona as she leapt from roof to roof.

"Yes Mona?"

"Thanks… Thanks for being here!"

"I`m always here.", said two, with a loving voice.

Mona at that point wasn`t sure if that meant she liked herself, but she did know that she loved being an Alchemist, and everything about it, even the fact that it was technically illegal. It meant it wasn`t supposed to exist, and wasn`t wanted.

"We're almost there, hang tight and stay safe!", said Two as she provided more lift for Mona to glide further to the ornate blue and gold towers of the Magicist guild. Quietly, Mona landed, with Two following closely behind.

 _Now to get to the loading dock._

A few more bounces muffled by Two, and she arrived at the back of the building.

Sure enough the horsecart was there, and books were being unloaded from all sorts of crates, getting ready to be sorted into the gigantic library of the magicist guild.

"Got a bunch here straight form the lost city!", said the driver to the magicist at the dock, in his traditional Blue and Yellow robe.

"Ah.. Good.. good.. Although I do hope there's no more of that blasphemous nonsense in this set.."

The Magicist in charge of the library said this with his nose held high and his glasses looking down at the book eagerly. It seemed he liked magic books almost as much as Mona liked hers.

"I`m not sure sir, We just picked up everything we could find. You know how it was in the old days. They were all mixed up. They're not all magic, though. Some sciencey stuff by Zoomy or some such nonsense in that one over there."

 _You've got to be kidding me._

Mona's heart nearly jumped out of her chest as Two managed to restrain her.

 _We have to get it now!_

"Mona, that guy is an experienced Magicist, and we only know a bit about alchemy! We have to wait for.."

Suddenly, two explosions could be heard as the Magicist Librarian and horsecart driver both began coughing and gagging. A cloud of yellowish gas had surrounded them.

"Blech..*cough* *hack* What.. is that horrible smell!?"

Mona's interest piqued.

 _Sulfur?_

"I believe so.", said Two.

Suddenly, a small figure darted out of the shadows and began rifling through the last crate, holding up a large book triumphantly. In less time than it took for the gas to clear, the figure had jumped away, and then, with a small explosion, jumped again.

 _What!?_

"He took the Book, Mona!", yelled two as Moan stood dumbfounded.

Mona's expression turned from shock to rage.

"Why.. that little.."

Without a further thought, Mona came out of hiding and leapt onto the nearby roof, with the aid of Two, that the small figure landed on.

"Hey You!"

"…", the figure stopped to turn and look at her. He was wearing thick goggles and a makeshift mask, with a satchel by his side.

"I was going to steal that!"

 _Real subtle, Mona_ , thought Two, internally.

"Well too bad. I got it first.. Hee Hee!"

Mona's expression turned to a blushing smile and she uncontrollably snorted. She had been caught completely off guard.

"W..what? That's…", she said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Hey! Don`t laugh at me!", said the figure, who Mona could now hear was a young boy.

"I`m sorry, it's just that that laugh is too cute, it's so funny…Hey! Never mind that! Give me that book!"

The small boy leapt back a bit, and pulled something out of his satchel.

"I've gotta get back and study this!", he yelled as he threw another bomb at her.

However, she was prepared. In a flash, Two formed into the Alchemical symbol for Air, blowing the gas to either side of her as she gave chase.

"How do you jump twice! Only I can use a burst circle. I made it myself!", yelled the boy as he leapt again, a small explosion emitting from a flash of light at the bottom of his boots.

"What.. what's a Burst circle?", Mona said angrily as she gave chase. "This is my Esoteric Alchemy!"

Suddenly, the boy stopped, as Mona took a minute to catch her breath.

"Alchemy?", he said, now curious, putting the book down. "Do you know about Alchemy?"

Mona was curious about the change in the boy's tone. He wasn`t laughing anymore, and his guard seemed to be down. Furthermore..

"Careful Mona, it might be a trap!", reminded two, floating in the air.

 _I don't think this is a trap. At least, I don`t want it to be._

"Yeah, I do know a bit… but I want to know more.", said Mona in a panic.

"That's why…That's why I need that book."

The boy stood curiously, holding it out with his right hand. "I've been looking for another alchemy book for a while now. But actually…"

"Haah!" yelled Two as she rushed out with a gust of air, throwing the book from the boy's hand, now directly between them.

"Two.. that's enough.", said Mona. In a heartbeat, Two was gone.

"Let's share it.", she said.

"What?! Why?!", said the boy. "I don`t even know you. But however, your Alchemy… it looks…so…so..."

Mona prepared to close her ears off again.

"INCREDIBLY AMAZING!"

She could now see his face clearly, beaming with excitement and envy.

"Woah.. hey! Yours.. that looks so cool! I mean, with the bombs and that Burst thing you said…"

"No.., that just some basics I learned. Yours.."

"No, Yours is…"

The two young Alchemists began to beam excitedly, and opened their mouths to yell a fate-shattering exclamation.

"I`ll share with you if you teach me how to do that!"


	4. 1st Exoteric Reaction

1st Exoteric Reaction – Status Quo Ante

Three years before the tower fell

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The sound was like a pipette being driven into the base of his skull.

"Ugh.."

Plague Knight turned over and slowly kicked off his bedsheets. Groggily, he got up and took a quill pen from beside his desk and made a large note on a piece of parchment amid various scribbles of transmutation and transportation circles.

 _I really, really need to remember that._

Walking over to his mirror, the Alchemist saw that the bags under his eyes hung even lower than usual, and splashed some water the servant had brought over the night previous.

 _And these guys wonder why I wear that mask all the time. True Efficiency! Hee!_

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

 _Ugh.._

With the tiniest laugh he could muster, Plague Knight walked over to his closet and selected one of the many identical robes he always wore. This was never an issue for him, as his current residence was always well stocked. The real decision came when choosing from his _other_ closet.

Opening it up, he could see various masks of several shapes and colors. Most were the whitish-green variety, with a pale, expressionless, and barely detailed beak somewhat resembling the skull of a crow.

One was slightly larger and more menacing, but the last one, that was one that made him shrug off any remaining tiredness in his mind.

 _Gramps, how long has it been?_ _How many years now? I won't forget what you told me._

The mask was also shaped like a crow's but with a thinner, more pointed beak and narrowed eyes. On it was painted a complex and ornate pattern of symbols even now Plague Knight barely comprehended, radiating from a point between the mask's eyes in a way that resembled rays of sunlight in a shade of yellowed red.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

 ** _Ugh.._**

With a sigh, Plague Knight took one of the normal masks from his closet and began to go through his routine checks of the filters and circles inscribed and built into the interior of the mask. From a sealed container, he grabbed some dried tulip petals and laid them onto the inside of the mask before strapping it to his face. A few clicks later, the mask was now essentially the face he showed to the world daily, and activating some transmutation circles around the edge made the mask actually improved his field of vision rather than impede it as it would without.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Plague Knight began to finally open his door to confront his merciless sonic tormentor.

"I`m here! Hold your …

Horses..hee.."

Sir Percival stood at Plague Knight's door, towering over him while twiddling his hooflike hands, next to a smaller figure, who was still unfortunately taller than Plague Knight. He locked his door behind him as the three began to walk down the halls, out of the dormitory.

"It's about bloody time.", said the lightly armoured figure, whose robes seemed to flow almost seamlessly from the joints in his leather. "I could swear you were up all night being debriefed by the Lab Administrator. I rarely see her return from anything so excited. Exactly what kind of a field test was that?"

"The kind where chasing after someone you just broke out of his cell was more demanding than fighting a Raid Gryph."

Percy could somehow feel a cold stare at him from the empty-looking eyes of Plague Knight's mask as he turned his head slightly away and smiled sheepishly.

The armoured and robed figure stopped short for a second.

"My God you weren`t joking.", he said towards Percy, mouth agape beneath his helm.

"See?" , said the horseman.

"And you`re still just an Agent? Is Alchemia Knight blind? Between this and your latest concoctions, I.."

"Mind telling me where we're going, Galen? Or did you wake me up early for nothing?"

Plague Knight snapped back without turning his head towards the stunned apprentice, and continued walking.

"Early? It's nearly noon, sir."

 _What!_

Plague Knight raced back to Galen, grabbing him by the collar and trying to bring him down to eye level.

"Why didn`t you say this earlier!?"

"I tried…"

"Never mind that! We have to get to the audience room! They`re going to be waiting for us! I can`t blow this chance!"

Plague Knight's demeanour changed completely as he started running full tilt through the ornate hallways of the Explodatorium, running though some robed minions carrying various flasks and bags to the labs and storeroom situated throughout the former castle.

"Gotta…Get..There!"

Plague knight took a leap while charging the standard burst he had equipped, letting it loose as he reached the apex of his jump.

"Watch it down there if you don`t want to get blown up!" Stabilizing himself, Plague Knight took a weak bomb from his satchel and threw it to cancel his momentum.

This gave his burst time to charge once more right before hitting the ground as it vaulted him forwards through another set of hapless base-level servant homunculi, spreading materials everywhere. Finally, he used his limited esoteric abilities to make his second leap midair, crossing the long hallway in less than a minute.

He could barely see Percy and Galen trying to catch up to him as he raced around the corner and soon came face to face with a large, imposing doorway. Above it, a stone carving of Alchemia Knight's face could be seen looming menacingly as he began to push open the doors with all of his strength.

This gave Percy and Galen enough time to catch up, helping him open the door as he ran through the second it was wide enough for an opening.

"I`m here! It's okay! I`m here, Alchemi…."

But Alchemia Knight wasn`t there.

"You`re late, Plague."

Six chairs stood behind a large, solid wood desk, the middle two sections raised. Four of the seats were occupied, though the occupant of the far left desk, that of the Guild Security Chief and Overseer, was currently sitting in the highest one.

"I prefer to think I was right on time? Hee?"

Plague Knight looked at the council before him. Only Mona, sitting in the second-highest seat, could be seen holding back a smile.

"I`m sorry, Is the loss of precious time funny to you?", the enforcer spoke in a tone that could poison a cobra.

"I knew you were aloof, but you should not be unaware that the kingdom is constantly trying to find ways to bring down our entire facility? That we only are still allowed to exist due to the interests of a few key parties in the council of nobles? That the Magicists and the Machinists, the eternal squabblers of the halls of Pridemoor, have one of their few points of agreement being the _complete eradication_ of Alchemy?!"

The Security chief stood up and leapt over the tall desk, landing gracefully in an Esoteric bounce despite his large and imposing figure. His green and gold armor echoed one of the factions of the Machinists, whom he both came from and despised. Even still, his weaponry and fighting style echoed their power. The rotating blades on his cuffs were rarely sheathed, and always oiled.

"But no, Plague _Knight,_ forgive me. This council exists solely for your amusement. I.."

"That's enough, Gash Knight."

The officer immediately turned and leapt back to the highest seat, continuing to stare at Plague Knight through his Eagle-like helm.

Mona stood stated calmly, remaining in her seat. "It takes more than one to waste time. Plague Knight, I know we went over everything earlier, but I wanted you to bring this matter to the guild council's attention. Alchemia Knight had to leave after talking to the prisoner you rescued."

The council member to the left of Mona, an elderly man with a long beard wearing a blue robe and glasses, then spoke out.

"Sometimes I wonder why he even bothers coming in here at all. I say, does anyone actually know where he is?"

Plague knew who the man was quite well and couldn`t help but chuckle beneath his mouth. The Potions Master, or, as he was known to most of the staff of the Explodatorium, _The_ _Alchemieser_ , for his obstinate attitude, always wanted to be guildmaster and had served the Alchemists even longer than Alchemia Knight himself, but he was long past his prime, and had always been shown up by the latest and greatest Alchemist that had found their way to the guild. This was especially aggravating since the guild was barely likely to get one or two new members per year due to both its secrecy and the fact that Alchemy was a forbidden practice. Most of its halls were filled with servant Homunculi of various rates.

"You know how he's always at the Lost City, excavating his latest historical obsession I`m sure. Can't say I`m not envious."

To the right of where Gash Knight currently sat was another council member, a middle aged woman known as the Record Keeper. She had joined the guild around the same time as Alchemia Knight, and mostly kept out of guild politics as she obsessed over collecting and restoring the history of alchemy. Plague Knight and Mona knew her quite well, and he was glad at least one other person besides Mona would be with him here.

"Anyway.", said the elder of the two women at the council. "Let's hear what Plague Knight has to say."

 _Finally._

Plague Knight straightened his robes and stepped forward to speak.

"I`m sure the Lab Administrator has used up all her willpower trying not to tell you this, but last night, during my undertaking of a long-requested operation by our beloved guildmaster, I was able to test out a new type of potion bomb on a target that would be of the highest priority during a supposed attack."

Although it was obscured by his helm, Plague Knight was positive that Gash Knight's brow was furrowing, and spoke with a gleeful tone.

"This, as some of you may know, was a Raid Gryph, a powerful monster bred for…"

"We know what a Raid Gryph is. Please continue.." , said the Alchemeiser.

"Yes..hee hee.. ahem , anyway, I was able to take it down with a single bottle of the newest potion that the Lab Administrator and I created…"

"Madam _Administrator_.," said Gash Knight. "I believe your duties, which may I remind you were personally set out by our guildmaster, are the overseeing of laboratory goings-on and the procurement of funds for continued production of better and more potent weaponry. Taking part in the research itself was expressly given to…"

"I _know_ who it was given to, Gash.", said Mona with an annoyed tone. "I am fulfilling the intended purpose of my position by cutting through all of that _garbage_ and simply producing better and more effective weaponry with one of the only people in this whole godforsaken building that actually cares about the advancement of Alchemical knowledge and application!"

Mona stood up, even from her lower desk, towering over Gash Knight. "Now, you will let him speak, or would you rather **_I_** explain to the entire guild that you would rather have me conduct the Homunculi to run in circles rather than contribute something meaningful?"

The room sat silent as Plague Knight continued.

"As I was saying... the potion we created was able to combine Exoteric alchemical principles of transmutation with Exothermic applications of our standard concoctions, multiplying their power on a logarithmic scale and completely obliterating the target in a show of both power and efficiency that would give us the advantage were we to use it during a surprise attack by the enemy turning the tide of battle in our favour!"

Plague Knight could barely catch his breath as he finished his speech, handing out the recipe for the potion that he and Mona had slaved over for months to the council members that were present.

"heh..heh…Thank…you.", said the masked Alchemist as he caught his breath.

The three who did not know them by heart already looked the plans over carefully and in exacting detail.

"Well well Mona..and Plague Knight! I'd say this is some quality alchemy right here. Paying homage the works of Jabir while taking inspiration from our own latest endeavours. And from what you have just said, strong enough to take down a Raid Gryph! Arga'll have to think twice before trying to scheme against us again!", said the Potions Master.

"I don`t think she'll be doing any scheming since she hasn`t been the guildmaster for years, you coot!", said the Record Keeper.

"Oh yes.. that's right. Still! Excellent work!"

The Record Keeper looked over towards Mona as Plague Knight stood at the edge of her field of view nervously. She was trying to hold back blushing as Gash Knight continued to look over the plans.

"My, you really do love your research, Ms Administrator."

"Well…it's why I came here." Plague Knight could see Mona looking towards him happily.

"Yes...yes… truly the work of someone worthy of the council… however…", said Gash Knight.

"What do you want to rain on now, Gash?", said Mona, back to her usual look.

"I wish to _rain_ on the costs incurred by this research and the possibility of mass production. I thought that the person in charge of such things would have noticed this, but per our current resources and time available we would have to cut back production of basic reagents and weaponry by 30% to even get what I would consider the bare minimum of a worthwhile stock of these 'Flowers of Antimony'. Now, seeing as the guildmaster has left me in charge of all major matters of research and production during his absence…"

Mona stood up immediately, her well-maintained face twisted into an expression halfway between rage and a forced smile.

"You know what, Gash? You don`t even need to say it. Fine. I get it. You clearly want us to languish in obscurity here forever until one day when the king decides to get up off his throne and wipe us out for some good PR when a year's harvest didn`t go well, or, or, something. Fine. I understand. We'll just do it, because that's what we're supposed to as people who can **_manipulate the forces of nature to our wills._** Just sit around and DO NOTHING."

Mona leapt up out of her seat and jumped down, walking past Plague Knight and through the doors. A scream of "Unbelievable!", was barely audible.

Plague Knight suddenly found himself facing the council alone, the three of them staring at him curiously.

"Uh..Um…I`ll just see myself out."

Plague Knight eventually caught up to Mona, who was already being followed by Galen and Sir Percival, following cautiously a few steps behind .

"Ugh.. Plaguey, I`m sorry you had to see that. Reeeeal Professional acting like a two year old in there, Mona. But those guys, just…seriously! Ugh!"

Mona grabbed and rubbed her hair rapidly in frustration as Plague Knight looked at her with worry. Mona had been even more excited than him to present the results of both their research and the field test to the rest of the council.

Seeing her like this was heartbreaking, even if he knew she was trying to blow off steam.

"Well, you know Gash. Nothing is really ever good enough for him unless someone paid _you_ money for supplies."

Mona finally started to cool down as she dropped her arms to her sides and walked slouchily forward.

"If he loves this budget thing so much why dosen`t he be Lab Admin? I barely got to do any research at all before this whole 'promotion' thing."

"Hey, at least you get to be near the lab. It's a good thing all the missions Gash Knight gives me are so easy I can complete them well ahead of schedule and work on some research. If I didn`t take that Prison Break job of my own accord I`d easily have had nothing of consequence to accomplish for the past few months! Hee Hee!"

Mona paused, and looked at Plague Knight quizzically. "It's a good thing I saw you in action last night or I'd worry about you getting a bit rusty… Plague.. watch out.. okay?"

"Eh, I`d never sleepwalk through a mission on purpose, you can relax, Mona.

Hey.. Let's change the subject. How about we go and spend a night in the library, like we used to!"

Mona's face lit up.

"You mean.."

"Oh yeah, the complete works of Jabir, Volumes One through Five!"

"Plague Knight, I love the way you think! I`ll race you there!"

The two Alchemists bolted forwards as Galen and Percy were left in the dust, without a single word towards them.

"Excuse me, Mr. Galen, but are they…?"

"Nope."

"But it's so obv…"

"Yes. To Everyone."

"Is every Alchemist mad in some way?"

"Probably."


	5. 2nd Esoteric Reaction

2nd Esoteric Reaction – Fortress

17 years before the tower fell

"This place is perfect!"

The young girl squealed as she moved away planks of wood from the doorway that covered the large, empty room. Here, she could see a secluded place, easy for anyone to ignore or simply take as a storage room full of cobwebs and old, empty barrels.

The room was hidden in an old underground complex near the local tavern. People usually came there to drink after work, but the area where Plague and Mona now journeyed to had long fallen into disuse, even as storage. In short, the perfect place for two budding alchemists to hone their craft.

"Yep! And this is just the entrance!"

Plague stood proudly as he uncovered a floorboard behind a table in the corner of the room. It was light enough for him to move without too much difficulty, and the darkness below, with only the top rungs of a ladder peeking out, would usually scare off anyone who would bother to look, besides him.

"Even here would be pretty decent, though we'd probably hang if we were found out. ", said Mona in the casual tone she usually spoke in about such matters.

"Hee, Gramps was pretty secretive for good reasons, I`ll give him that... You brought the lantern, right?"

Mona pulled the heavy instrument up by the handle with both hands, showing the matches she had stolen from the kitchen as well. "All...accounted...for." She said with a huff. It would be decidedly tricky to carry that down the ladder.

"If we're gonna use this place all the time, we're going to need a better way."

Plague looked at the ladder's descent into darkness. Dropping the lantern down there would be the worst case scenario. He had no idea how far it led down, but he'd hoped they wouldn`t have to manoeuvre too far.

"Yeah, definitely. But for now, we've gotta go. I wanna see what your gramps left you!"

Without another thought, Mona began to descend downwards after lighting the lantern. Plague looked at her back and admired her foresight. What seemed like several layers of bedsheets were packed between her cloak and her back, as well as in her hood. If she fell, or if the ladder broke, there was at least a better chance of her survival than otherwise. Plague had completely overlooked the possibility, but then again, he was also carrying a bag full of supplies.

While he was lost in thought, Mona's hands had disappeared from sight in the hole the ladder stuck up from. Quickly, he bounded over and began to climb downwards himself.

It had only been a few short months since he had met his partner in crime, and a few even shorter weeks since they had broken the cipher on Plague's Gramps's notes. Plague was astonished with the speed she had absorbed the knowledge in the few Alchemy books he had on hand, and equally as mesmerised by how their combined knowledge seemed to be able to unlock any formula the other had trouble understanding.

In general, Plague was usually the first to realize an issue, whereas Mona had trouble divining what the trouble was, and merely glanced over the detail. However, her overall understanding of the issue at large was nearly flawless. Once Plague pointed it out and explained his reasoning, Mona's and his own thoughts would eerily push each other forward towards the solution.

It was in this manner that they had broken the cipher, and discovered the location where Gramps did the majority of his Alchemical work. They had a lot to thank Gramps for, actually.

"Hey! I`m at the bottom! Looks like it's three floors down!"

Plague's thoughts were interrupted by Mona's yell, as he heard the soft clank of the lantern she carried being set against a damp, stone floor. As quickly as he could without spilling the bag of supplies he had brought with him, Plague scuttled down the ladder and joined her.

What the two children could see would have baffled most of the townspeople, as well as brought them a sense of foreboding to see such a small part of a clearly enormous and pitch-black room; but for both of them, this may as well have been the first birthday either had experienced.

On one shelf stood dozens of beakers, flasks, and alembics, covered in years of dust. On another , distillery equipment of all shapes and sizes was organized, spilling out onto the floor as well.

Closest to the two children, however, was a shelf full of books, with a single dusty volume open to a page with a quill pen buried in the spine.

"WowowowowWOW!"

Mona beamed as she struggled to drag the lantern across the stone floor, clanking along to the center of the room. Plague saw the air around her create a slight "Woosh", and she struck a match to have her own personal light as she explored, bouncing around like she usually did when Alchemy was involved. He could already see her poking about and taking a few objects with her in her bag.

"I can`t believe this! Right under the town! All of this!"

Plague drew closer to the book as Mona buzzed around the area, lighting long-doused braziers along the wall for more permanent illumination. As more and more of the large, cavernous area came to light, Plague saw that the book was written in a familiar code.

 _Gramps wrote this… This was his.._

Mona usually needed the cipher beside her to deduce what they had termed "Grampish".

 _Jeber wrote in Gibberish, so Gramps…_

But Plague had studied his Gramps' code long before Mona helped him understand what it meant, and was able to apply it mentally.

Remembering the last time he had seen the only person to ever call him family, he took the book off of the shelf, and read the open page of the journal.

 _If you are reading and understanding this, then you`re either that stubborn boy who refused to give himself a better name than the horrible thing I first called him, or some idiot whose curiosity got the better of them and came down a hole without the slightest clue of what to expect._

 _If you`re the latter, congratulations; you found a junk heap. There's nothing that'd be of any value to someone who does not practice an art that our kingdoms seem to only deem necessary in times of crisis, and banish and prosecute in all others._

 _If you`re the former, I wonder how long it took you to get my cipher, eh? Maybe a teenager, maybe a young man? Regardless, I`m thankful that you still thought enough of me to come down here. Quite the place, if I do say so myself. I trust that you are still trying to practice Alchemy. Hopefully by now you`re using the cloaks I left you behind so you don`t blow yourself up like you kept on nearly doing. Every Alchemist puts a bit of themselves into their creations and concoctions. Don`t put in anything you don`t want to or can`t live without._

 _I've built up quite a stock here over the years, some components common, others rare. It`ll last as long as you make it, but don`t be afraid to experiment. You may have realized by now that a good alchemist working on their own should never be in need of gold , only in need of fools to take it and places to trade it._

 _You asked me once the reason why I became an Alchemist. What I told you back then was true, but not the entire truth. Magicists simply siphon off and bend their Mana into various shapes and uses, while these new Machinists use the pure power of natural forces without any connection to the self. Both have their place, and both their uses. But Alchemists, we are the ones who do both of these and more. Combining the natural and supernatural, the Exoteric and Esoteric, the Mythical and the Mechanical. Our craft is both of those and so much more._

 _I became an alchemist because I wanted to see the complete power of the world, everything it had to offer, and use it to fix everything that happened. As the last of the Plague Doctors, it is what I had to do. What I have to do._

 _Don`t blow yourself up!_

 _Gramps_

"Plague, you gotta come see! There's so many more rooms and books and jars and… what is that?"

Plague had been lost in thought as Mona appeared behind him carrying a stack of dusty books.

"Uwaaah!", he yelled as he jumped backwards, book in hand, nearly hitting the dresser behind him as he ended up in a squatting position on three limbs, the book held tightly to his chest in his arm.

"Woah. Take it easy there froggie. I just wanted to know what was going on with you."

Plague looked around in a panic, trying to recover from both surprise and embarrassment.

"Uh.. um..Hey! I`m not a frog! And I`ll have _you_ know this book is my gramps' journal and had a message for me. Hee hee!"

Plague regained his composure and stood up, his nose slightly higher in the air, with a proud smile. Mona held back a small laugh.

"Your Gramps's notebook? That's awesome! Can I see?"

Plague panicked. If Mona read the note, she might think less of him as an alchemist… However, she couldn`t read Grampish without the cipher.

"Heee… Hee… Of Coooourse you can!" Plague plopped the book down on the floor and opened it to the appropriate page, smiling confidently as Mona bent to take a look.

"Hmm… more Grampish."

"Yeah, sorry you can`t re-"

"I thought we might find more down here. It's a good thing I brought the Cipher! "

Plague broke out in a cold sweat as she took out the piece of scratch paper form her cloak.

"GWAAAHH!"

She turned suddenly and saw Plague's expression.

"Plague…if it's personal, I don`t have to read it. There's plenty of other books here."

He felt slightly ashamed. Ever since he had met Mona, she was constantly mesmerised by the few Alchemy volumes he had in his hideaway, and he loved to simply listen as she read aloud, chiming in when he had a new realization, a new proposed experiment, or something to ask. The volume she had brought was extremely interesting as well. He only had Zosimos' 3rd volume on hand, but the first cleared up quite a few questions he had, although his focus on Maria's work was more overt in the beginning.

She was always quite sad to leave, and Plague learned more than he had since Gramps had last been there, which seemed like ages ago.

"Yeah..um..sure. Thanks."

The silence was ear-shattering aside from the few dripping noises that echoed throughout the large chamber.

"Soooo… let me show you the rest of this place! You won`t believe what's here!"

"Yeah! Hee hee hee! Let's see!"

Plague was eager to change the subject of conversation, and then realized the enormity of the area he was standing in now that Mona had lit all of the braziers.

"Gramps… really had all this?"

A gigantic area filled with overlapping stone arches that seemed to come from another age was laid out before the two children, now covered in the bright glow of the flaming torches. All around, shelves lined with books and equipment were laid out next to machines designed for distillery and the filling and creation of casings for bombs and potions.

"He must have been an _amazing_ alchemist. I..I.. don`t even know where to start.."

Plague shared in Mona's bewilderment. To him, Gramps had always seemed like a funny old man who took care of him and taught him the basics of alchemy while he messed up a formula that (less often than not, thankfully) exploded in his face.

Here was the lair of someone who may as well have been a Master Alchemist, even close to the rank of Prophito.

"Let's try to map out the whole place first.", said Mona. "I wish I could stay here forever."

 _Me too._

A few hours later, Mona found herself busily drawing and copying over maps of the whole underground complex, which still lacked a name, while walking down one of its many tunnels.

Throughout, there were large amounts of doors that could only be revealed and opened with Alchemical seal symbols like Plague had shown her when he let her inside his hideout a few months prior.

Many of them led to empty bedrooms, while others led to even deeper, darker hallways that Mona grew frustrated of and simply labelled as "UNEXPLORED" on her map. It was best to keep things readable, after all. She also thought about the possibility of overlaying the map over one of the town to see if there would be any good spots of connection, but getting a basic layout done and the simple drive to see where everything led was far more tempting.

"Mona, watch out!"

Mona found herself pushed to the wall as Plague jumped out in front of her, throwing a simple smoke bomb.

She heard a rapid squeaking noise while her vision became obscured with a black cloud, sending her into a small coughing fit before quickly dissipating.

"That rat was huge!", said Plague. "How did you not see it?"

Mona shrugged as she regained her eyesight. "Heh, just busy with the map I guess."

Mona saw Plague sigh as he carried the small torch they had found. It had been a long day, and they had passed through several pathways plague unlocked. They saw less and less to do with Alchemy as they moved forward besides the doors, but for some reason Plague was making a conscious effort to gather the best cloak and protective wear he saw hanging around, even though they had both agreed that there wasn't enough time to do any experimentation today.

"We should probably look for a way out soon."

Mona didn`t want to stop, but had to agree deep down. It would be time for her to have to prepare dinner soon, and being late was not something she wanted to experience twice. Then again… today was soup. Soup was easy to cook, especially with Alchemy to mix the ingredients rather than mashing them up. Surely, she had at least..

"Wha..WHAAA!"

Mona could barely catch herself as the world around her began to spin and become filled with splashing water.

"Mona!"

She could hear Plague's yell as she struggled to keep her maps dry and place them in her satchel even as she tumbled down what she could now barely make out was a drainage trough. She finally straightened out enough to see that she was about to fall into a dirty-looking river.

 _Oh No. Nooo Way._

"From the One Comes Two!"

In a flash, the water below her splashed out of place and bounced her to a stone walkway just beside the dirty river, which she could now smell clearly, and was ever more glad that she avoided it.

 _Mona, that was too close!_

 _Yeah yeah, Two, I know._

 _You have to be more careful!_

 _How was I supposed to know?! This wasn`t an experiment! I was just trying to make a map!_

 _Still, we..._

"Mona! Are you okay!"

Mona heard Plague's shout echo down the long slide. Distantly, she could make out his form from the light above, and from the torch she was carrying that miraculously had not hit the water yet. Looking up, she could barely believe her eyes.

Here, Mona could see rows upon rows of spell sconces for holding Luminary magic. These normally didn`t last long and had to be re-lit once every few days, but the ones here looked like they hadn`t been used in decades. The river of dirty water also seemed to be flowing away from where the sconces seemed to be spaced closer together.

If her assumption was correct, she couldn`t pass up this chance.

"Yeah, I`m fine! Thanks for asking!"

"Hold a bit, I`m going to try and find a way down! Hee!"

Mona could barely contain her own giggle.

 _If he's doing that laugh, I know he'll be fine. I wanna know what's here..._

 _Mona! We should really wait..._

Mona ignored Two's plea and couldn`t help but sate her curiosity. Excitedly, she bounded forward.

"Plague, try to catch up to me, but stay quiet, I have a feeling about this place!"

"Mona, what in the …"

Mona couldn`t contain herself anymore and used Two's abilities to gain a considerable amount of speed. She leapt forward, onto a platform in the middle of the river, testing her accuracy.

 _This is it. This is where it can all begin! Two, we start gathering information TODAY._

If a voice inside one's head could sigh, Two would have.

 _If you say so. Just think me what to do._

 _Don`t I always?_

With a smirk, Mona leapt off of the platform in the middle of the river and jumped forwards again, spying a large, menacing rat. It reared up to her and bared its teeth, but all Mona saw was opportunity.

Raising her arm backwards, Mona used two to gather air around it, alchemical symbols glowing around her fist.

With a great yell, Mona lurched her fist forward with all her strength. Now, as a ten year old girl with no combat training, her fist would have barely even scratched the rat had it reached it, but the air around her arm launched forward with incredible force, catching the rat off guard and slamming it headfirst into the wall, then bouncing to the ceiling, and finally down into the river of water, making an enormous splash.

 _This is me. This is me. I can do this! The Magicists won`t know what hit them!_

Mona made another leap forward, this time leaping into the air a second time at the apex of her first, aiming for an overhang on the wall on the opposite side of the river.

 _Now just a biiit.._

Flying through the tunnel, she grabbed the edge of the platform and used her abilities to effortlessly push the rest of her body onto the ledge.

 _Yes!_

Here, she could see a metal grate on the ceiling. Rearing back, she gathered the air around her feet and kicked upwards, knocking it loose.

 _Mona, listen, you'`re using too much. You've gotta cool it. Remember, we're probably already inside. Save the rest for the escape._

Mona finally began to listen to Two as she poked her head above the hole in what she could see was the floor of a new building. She already knew where she was…roughly.

 _We're in, I can`t believe we're in!_

 _Monaaa… please focus!_

At that second, a mechanical lurching could be heard as a huge rock was hurled towards Mona, inches from her face.

Mona began to think the worst, but looked all around her and saw nothing but a large, empty stone room, except for a rather menacing mechanical facsimile of a dragon. And judging from the magical lights in its eyes, it was somehow active and looking directly at her.

 _Wow..we really ended up here, eh?_

 _Mona! Come on! This is the worst time!_

 _No..It's the best.._

From its mechanical maw and sinouous, jointed neck fitted with heavy wood and iron fittings, the beast let out a loud, screeching roar as it picked up another large rock slowly in its hand.

Mona stood her ground, and looked the beast directly in the eye.

 _It's time for a brand new experiment…_

"From the two...comes Three!"

Mona yelled at the top of her lungs, and braced herself for…anything. Even the Mechanical dragon gave pause before throwing another rock.

"Waaah!"

Mona yelled as she dodged out of the way.

 _Okay, so I can`t do that yet… I know that now. Mental Note._

 _MONA! That was totally reckless! How could you even think to reach that stage of the Axiom yet! From what we read many take even years to get to where we are now!_

 _Yeah, yeah … but I was kind of in the moment, ya know?_

Mona grinned sheepishly.

 _Focus! Mona!_

 _Right, Right._

Snapping back to reality, Mona dodged another rock and readied a blast of air.

"How about this!"

She hurled the blast forwards, hitting the dragon square in the face. The machinery reeled back, stopping for a while, and Mona tried to make her escape. However, the gears clicked back into place, and the Dragon's eyes changed color from Yellow to Red.

 _Okaaay, different approach. This seems relatively simple. Plague's Gramps, I hope you were as good an alchemist as your place seemed to show!_

Mona reached into her bag and brought out three vials in a clear casing. They were dark pink in color, and had a red tip at one end.

The dragon wouldn`t wait for her to analyse any further, however, and began to blast a stream of fire from its mouth, sweeping the area along the ground.

 _Oh, is that all.._

With little effort, Mona leapt into the air, and then again as she looked at the dragon from above, it's neck outstretched. Near the base of the neck, she saw an open joint.

 _I see now._

With all her strength, Mona hurled the three vials one after the other into the exposed area, and heard them loudly break open as the machine turned its head.

Boom.

Boom.

 **BOOM!**

Whatver was in it, the third vial seemed to pack an incredible punch as a gigantic pick cloud of energy formed at the base of the neck and let out four smaller blasts in all directions, echoing throughout the room and blowing the mechanical beast's neck clear off the rest of its body.

 _Phew.. Now hopefully the room was…_

Mona's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of loud and intense clapping, coming from a single set of hands _._

"Wow! That's amazing! A magicist at your age doing that! WOW WOW WOW!"

Slowly, Mona could see Luminary orbs at the edges of the room glow ever brighter, revealing a place far larger than she originally estimated. Here, she could see rows upon rows of stone seats, all empty, now clearly visible due to the extra light.

Standing in front of one of these seats was an exuberant ball of energy in the form of a pretty young girl about Mona's age with long, gold-colored hair braided into an exquisite pattern around her head. She wore the Blue and yellow uniform of a Magicist guild trainee, and was running out onto the field straight at Mona.

"I was going to practice here on off days, but I guess I didn`t notice you come in here before me. But Wow, oh WOW that was amazing! I've never seen or heard magic like that! You`re even better than some of the teachers! By the way, What's your name? I`m Maggie!"

The girl held out her hand, but all Mona could do was stare at it in disbelief as the air around her once again settled.

"Uh..um.. I`m…"


	6. 2nd Exoteric Reaction

Exoteric Reaction 2 – Double Deals

3 years before the tower fell

The route between the Machinist Guild's Clockwork Tower and Pridemoor Village was one of the most well-travelled in all the kingdom. Almost daily, large transport carriages as massive as siege weaponry could be seen being driven up and down the road, both by horses and the newest clockwork engines created by the Guild. Talk that would have been foolish just a few years back, that of paving the road with cobblestones, or even newer material The Guild had been perfecting, was now under serious discussion as its route was now the very lifeblood of the kingdom.

It was "The Guild" now, to most people in the kingdom, and their presence was nearly ubiquitous. All over Pridemoor, daily life was being transformed by their works, most notably that of farmers. Crops were being planted and harvested at an efficiency not before seen, and allowing for this, the price of food at the market began to drop.

Outlying hamlets and villages benefited the most from The Guild, and it was at one particular location, known simply as the Armor Outpost, where this was most apparent. Several years ago, the kingdom had little need for another military fort at the location, and it, at the time, was difficult to reach by carriage. The Guildmaster of the Machinists, back then considered old and feeble-minded, offered to fix up the base in exchange for the ability to act in the stead of the King's Soldiers as those who watched over it in case of an invasion. Sensing a shrewd deal, the king eagerly agreed to her proposal, and the outpost was put under control of The Guild.

Today, as with most days, the Greens and Golds of the Machinists flew from nearly every awning, with the Reds and Silvers of its lowly but ever present predecessor, the Blacksmith Guild, serving as accents and badges of honor to those who clung to it as participants in the origin of something grand. Shops specializing in the making of Weapons and Armor, as well as newly fashionable clothing for Nobles, gave the town its name, although it was much, much more than a simple Outpost now.

"Amazing what a few years can do, eh Plaguey?"

These words came from a tall, statuesque woman of green skin tone with short, black hair in a bob, riding in one of the many Guild carriages along the road, towards the Outpost, although this particular carriage had been stolen from and then later reluctantly given to its current owners.

She sat idly by the carriage window, a notebook in her hands that to anyone except the two riding it would look like the rambles of a child just learning to write. This was partially due to the fact that it was written in code.

"Hee…Yeah, I'll say…. Ms _Marie_."

Mona picked up a small pillow in the carriage and threw it at her partner in crime lightly, harmlessly bouncing off his grinning, slightly scarred face.

"Whatever, _Pierre_ … Ugh, god I hate codenames. When it's just us, let's drop it. Pleeease."

Mona took out a fan from her purse and tried to cool herself off. She looked at Plague Knight… _Pierre,_ and envied the simplistic Butler's disguise he wore...to a degree. She wore a long gown decked out in a shade of green slightly darker than that of the signature green of The Guild, with beautiful gold accents and frills patterned throughout. These were not just painted, but made of real gold alchemically fused to thread, symbolic as to their journey's purpose.

Because Mona was, as always, covered completely from the neck down, the dress was heavier than her usual clothes by a significant degree, and definitely not much cooler. The intricate gold pattern on her gloves, the only part of the costume she designed herself, was something she was quite proud of, however.

"Of course, _Mademoiselle_ , hee hee!", said _Pierre_.

"Anyway, Gash said we should stop over here for the night and to pick up the package and trade it for Twenty Thousand, before the final stretch to the Clockwork Tower. I have to say, it was nice of him to give us an official mission together for once."

Mona straightened up in her seat before leaning back in exhaustion from the trip, her notebook covering her face and muffling her words.

"Yeah, that'd be true except for the fact that it was the most expedient way to get this done. I'm here for negotiations because Alchemia Knight and his Shadows are still away, Keeper's too shy, Meiser's too old, and even Gash knows he's a bit of a scumbag and that I let loose because I was among allies. He could do the first part for sure, but the second is debatable. You're here for recon because one, he's too afraid for his own job to admit how good of an alchemist you are, two, the fact that we already have a good working relationship, and three, the fact you're the one with the most insight into who's trying to betray us."

Plague Knight was about to reply with appreciation for her compliment, when he noticed the carriage slowing down to turn a streetcorner. Out of the window, he saw a rather large, newish looking building where a banner was being hung across several wooden columns.

"Le Bouquet Magique…"

Mona immediately stood up, the notebook flying from her face to the back of the carriage, her head hitting the ceiling as she ran to stick her head out of the window.

"Wow…wowowow! It really is! Pl…Pierre! That's the symphonic play I heard as a kid! They're playing it again!"

Mona couldn't help but yell out as she awkwardly pulled her head back into the carriage, now crouching down and looking through the window with her eyes just above the windowsill.

"Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh!", she said with an excitement that contrasted humorously with her outfit.

"Heee..", said Plague Knight under his breath. "I'm really happy for you! Let's hope we have enough time after getting the package."

Mona instantly froze and slumped over in a depression. "uuuuugh the packaaagee. Yeah…I guess the mission comes first. There'll probably be another time, eventually. I'll try not to think about that too much then."

Mona sat back in her seat as Plague Knight saw the warring thoughts in her head play out in her facial expression.

"Soo… Let's see what we brought here, eh? I can't wait to try out that new burst!", said Plague Knight, quickly trying to change the subject to something more uplifting.

"Ohh yeah! Man P..Pierre, The way you integrate those different transmutagenic effects… and the reagent efficiency! Even Gash should be impressed by that!"

"Ahem.", said Plague Knight, getting up from his seat, standing rigidly, and haughtily pointing his nose into the air. "I, Gash Knight of the council and all around Stick in the Mud, begrudgingly commend you, Plague Knight, on your mastery of the Alchemical Arts, Hee hee. Now... get back to doing random tasks instead of Research!"

Mona stood as well, taking care not to hit her head on the ceiling, and drummed up the lowest voice she could muster. "And don't forget to tell Mona to keep ordering the Homunculi to walk back and forth in the halls carrying reagents! This is very important! Harumph!"

Just then, the carriage hit a bump in the road, sending the two toppling to the floor, hitting their heads together.

"Ow!"

The two of them then burst out into raucous laughter so loud that the carriage driver, a familiar Horseman, wondered just what on earth was so funny. "Sorry about that bump, _Mademoiselle_ , I'll try to avoid more in the future.", he yelled out.

"Heh.", said Mona, cracking a smile while catching her . "You really should be on the council, you know."

Plague Knight turned from laughter to stunned silence in an instant.

"Hee hee…huh?"

Before anything more could be said, they were interrupted by Sir Percival, who on this mission had chosen to call himself Daustin. Plague Knight and Mona were still bitter over the fact that he got to choose his own name.

"Mademoiselle, we have arrived at the inn!"

Mona stood and stretched as she and Plague Knight both got into character. Break time was over. She could see Sir Percival opening the door from the outside, while Plague Knight stepped out in front of her, dragging two large cases along on wheels.

The door opened to the late afternoon sunlight as Plague Knight and Sir Percival stood at either side of the open carriage door. Grabbing a fan and pointing her nose in the air, she took her first steps out, seeing the Inn that the Alchemist Guild had selected for their single night stay. It was a modest-looking, for the outpost anyway, three-story building with lavishly stained wooden columns, carved with ornate patterns commissioned from a local artisan. From what she could see of the interior, it was decked out with Red carpeting and Silver candelabras, a sign of the deep roots the building had with the community. In short, it was the place with the lowest possible price a lesser noble would be caught staying in.

"Come Along, Pierre, Daustin. We are barely on schedule." Without looking at either of them, Mona motioned with her fan for them to follow as she stepped over the threshold.

"See, now this is what a hotel looks like. Pay close attention, _Daustin._ The _Mademoiselle_ and Iwould have you recognize it more clearly. Hee…"

Mona swallowed a giggle under her breath as she heard Plague Knight. He could be quite funny when he wanted to.

She approached the front desk, spying a man in a black suit, red shirt, and silver tie. He was balding slightly, with a thin moustache and a slightly annoyed look on his face as he was perusing a guestbook. Mona snapped her fingers sharply without averting her gaze from the upper corner of the wall.

"Ah.. you must be Mademoiselle LaFontaine. I am Norman, and quite pleased to make your acquaintance, Milady. We were expecting your arrival."

He held out his hand, and only then did Mona acknowledge his presence by putting her gloved hand in his as she averted her gaze downwards at him.

"Enchanted, I'm sure. This is my carriage driver, Daustin, and my personal bodyguard and servant, Pierre. I trust all quarters and arrangements have been accounted for by my esteemed father?" , Mona Motioned to Sir Percival and Plague Knight respectively as she spoke.

"Yes…indeed." Norman seemed to look quite puzzled at the sight of Plague Knight, as he shot back a dirty look. "Anyway, all has been prepared as I'm sure you have been told. Please, allow me to escort you to your rooms."

As they let go of each other's hands, Mona dropped a small bag of coins into Norman's, which he quickly and quietly pocketed. The three of them followed Norman to the top floor, at which point he gave Mona the key after opening it with his own.

The trio stepped into the room with a sigh of relief as the two men set down the bags and shut the door behind them.

Plague Knight slumped against the door in relief as Mona jumped in the bed and buried her face in the pillows.

"Hee...Phew... glad we still have that contact.", said Plague as a sense of relief washed over him. He had been tricked by supposed safe contacts before and was ready for a fight if the need arose. Despite the unprecedented success of the Machinist Guild boosting the Town's economy, he had found some people to always want more.

With a stretch and a groan, Mona gave out her instructions while lying face down in her pillow.

"We've got some time, guys. 'Daustin', your job is done for now. Go to the servant's room and secure our luggage. Then just make sure to stay out of trouble until tomorrow. You can do whatever you want until then..."

Mona then raised her head and turned towards Sir Percival.

"Nobody here would know you... right?"

The horseman's cheeks turned red as he waved his hands frantically in front of his face. "Why no, of course not! I rarely left the capitol in my entire career. I had no need of it. Surely, even if, perchance we were to meet a former acquaintance of mine, I sincerely doubt they would recognize me from a passing glance or chance meeting. Humans have trouble telling individuals not of their own apart anyway, ahem, right?"

'Daustin' nervously rocked back and forth as his mouth spewed explanations.

Mona simply raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to go back into what would be his and Plague's bedroom for the night. Sir Percival did so without hesitation.

"That guy... Exactly why did the boss need him on this one?" Plague Knight asked as he approached Mona, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, keeping an eye on the time.

"He didn't tell you? From what I saw he used to be somebody in the council of nobles. Not a member, of course, but not nothing, either. Apparently involved in architecture, both historical and modern. I don't need to bore you with the details, but he's pretty safe to keep around. He was in that jail for a reason, and it's not because he's dangerous. As for why he needed to be here? The boss didn't tell me."

"I suppose it's too much for our mortal minds to need to know, eh?", said Plague Knight as he unpacked his Chemically treated Coat and Mask.

Mona turned toward him while unpacking her familiar dress and robes. She quickly threw the cloak around her lower face, her eyes giving away the grin underneath. "Ah, but is it not the greatest desire of a student of Alchemy to want to know even the most minute detail of all reactions?", said Mona in her greatest haughty voice.

Seeing what she was doing, Plague Knight jumped on the bed and wrapped his own mouth in a sheet as well. "Is this not the force that drives us to seek out, accomplish, and vanquish the impossible?"

"YES! That's totally him!"

The two shouted simultaneously and burst into laughter. From the next room, the groan of a certain horseman could be heard.

* * *

Normally, one would find the streets of the Armor Outpost congested with the sounds of Merchants and Traders, signalling the flood of gold coins that were changing hands during the seemingly eternal sunset in the valley. This would be a normal sight throughout the Outpost, if not for the fact that this particular corner of the booming town, however, was Setton Road.

Setton Road was hardly a road at all, more of a wide alleyway seemingly carved between two blocks that were neither too close to fully close off nor too far to make a proper roadway. The signs and awnings of businesses on Arvena Avenue to the North and Jano Street to the south blocked the eyes of even the high guard towers around the walls of the old Outpost that gave the town its namesake, shrouding Setton Road in shadows for most of any given day, and making it so only the foolish or the strong would venture there at night.

Here, gold was far too common of a commodity to be traded alone. What was traded here, in a pub located behind a storm-worn but strong wooden door, were Treasures. This, was Fortune's Port.

"Password." The guard behind the door stated, before anyone even knocked. Two Alchemists in hooded robes stood in silence for a half-second, as people behind them passed from stall to stall, store to store, along the muddy cobblestone path of Setton Road, going about whatever business they could only do here.

"High Seas, Deep Riches.", Mona stated back, flatly. Another half-second passed, and the strong wooden door barred with metal that looked like it was torn from the mast of an old sailing ship, was opened.

The doorman was nowhere to be seen as Plague Knight and Mona took off their hoods, revealing Mona's face and Plague Knight's mask, which was covered by another, smaller hood, puzzling the bartender as he looked over to the door.

The scene inside was unlike any pub the two had ever beheld. Aside from the bar along the left side of the room, where people of every race and species were busy drinking and conversing, the right side of the room looked like a maze from the view by the front door, with hallways snaking their way throughout what was clearly a decent-sized section of the city block; rooms of various sizes hidden by thick drapes dotting the walls and the central area. In the back, Plague Knight could make out some sets of gambling tables as well as those new gambling machines created by The Guild.

"Your Meetingssh...?" A small figure floated up to Mona, their dark blue bodysuit and distinct, monstrous looking hood giving off the unmistakeable presence of a Gulper Mage, those which rejected the legal title of Magicist to remind of the days long past when the Enchanters ruled the land with fear and intimidation, rather than the Magicists who now aided the King and people, offering insight and military assistance. The two were completely different.

"Yes. we are here to see the Traders. I believe they should already be here?", said Mona.

The diminutive figure cocked their head to one side, giving the two a once over. "Ah.. Yesh. The _Alchemisssshsts_. Follow." Plague Knight could sense the laughter that the small figure held back as they led Mona and he down the small set of stairs to the main floor.

The Gulper Mage was not an unexpected sight. Fortune's Port was owned and operated by the Trovers, a group which any one term in particular could not define. One could say they were pirates, after all they pillaged ships and stole from various towns along the coastline of the Sea of Albia. One could say they were businessmen, who used their vast fleet to scour the cities for opportunities for trade and transport. One could also say they were Salvagers, since their Flagship, the Iron Whale, was a one-of-a-kind vessel stolen from the Mediterran Empire's shipyards, capable of travelling below the waves and scouring the bottom of the sea for treasures and artifacts that until recently were lost to time. The Empire, of course, was infuriated by this theft, but no one much cared for them in Pridemoor, and the Trovers brought in so many rare artifacts for trade that there were rumours that the Guild Coalition gave them unofficial support.

Nevertheless, the Trovers and their Knight Errant leader were a known commodity in the Outpost for anyone who had or wanted to have things that could not be found anywhere else.

"Here.", said the Gulper Mage, as they eventually reached a large room nestled deep in the tentacles of the mazelike hallways. The Mage opened the drapes, allowing Plague Knight and Mona to step through, then immediately closing them.

"Welcome, Councilwoman." The voice came from the man sitting at the far end of the table in the well-furnished room, in the center of a group of five. Various meals, many of which the two had never even seen before in their lives, dotted the ornate wooden table in the center. Many of the dishes were already half-eaten.

"Good Afternoon to you, Don Ganjo. I'm grateful that this arrangement could be made." Mona gave a small bow of respect.

The man at the end of the table wore a fine tailored black suit with a tulip on his lapel, while the others around him wore suits with grey stripes. Each of them looked like they were carrying enchanted weapons with them, while the chainmail they wore beneath them made their already large frames even more intimidating.

These men were from a small but growing group known as the Traders. They dealt in various trades that Plague Knight preferred not to think about, helping people in "unfortunate situations", and collecting debt on this help in imaginative ways. Such a group held no regard for most laws, making them the typical kind of people who would deal with those who practiced Alchemy.

"It's no problem, of course. How many times have we done this, after all? Though this is my first time meeting you, I believe. You're a bit nicer to look at than the Doc himself." The man gave a small smirk while Plague Knight glared back through his mask, seeing the four men with him laughing at something under their breath. He preferred not to know what.

"Right.. well, let's get down to business then." Mona pulled up a chair at the opposite end of the table. Plague Knight did so as well, and brought out the suitcase he held with him, opening it to reveal a square, wooden device that was engraved with an intricate alchemical symbol. It appeared to be made from high quality wood, with the alchemical circle carved and painted white. It was quite beautiful, actually. But then, of course, Plague Knight had been one of its key designers. The Don smiled.

"Five Thousand." , he said matter-of-factly.

Plague Knight could see the skin between Mona's eyebrows begin to furrow for a split second, but then she began to give a familiar, if insincere smile. Nobody tried to undercut the Alchemists on a deal. It was time for these small timers to understand why.

"Don Ganjo, I think it's time to go over what this can do for you. We've tweaked it since the last one, and I believe you'll be happy with it." Mona brought out a small piece of lead from her pocket, and placed it into the center of the device. Placing her hand at the edge of the alchemical circle, she poured some of her mana into it and the device began to glow with a slight white light. The piece of lead grew smaller, and in a slot at the back of the device, the five men could see a gold coin slowly forming, until a single gold piece of Pridemoor denomination was produced.

"Can't fault the ROI with this, it's why I'm even talking to people like you. But how is this any different from what you've given me before?"

Mona's smile became a grin of confidence, and she revealed a side panel of the device to the Don. "Here, watch what happens when I flip this switch."

A whirring within the device could be heard, and hinges in the ornate wooden frame that made up the Alchemical Circle began to shift and move, until they formed into a slightly different symbol.

"Now Look." Mona placed the piece of lead onto the center of the symbol once more. "Place your hand on it like I did, and send some of your mana through it as if you were casting an empty spell." The Don, giving an amused chuckle, did as he was instructed, and the device began to glow. The Don was inadept at magic, and Mona sat back and played with her fingers on the table as the man powered the device. The piece of lead grew smaller as before, and a brand new gold coin appeared in the back.

The four men with the Don immediately jumped backwards two feet.

"A Farith!"

"Imperial Money!?"

"Impossible!"

The Don immediately stood up and slammed his fists on the table, his eyes bulging with shock, the muscles of his mouth fighting valiantly against holding it agape in awe. "Quiet! All of you idiots."

Settling, The Don gave a piercingly furious glare towards Mona. "You Alchemists... you really do have a death wish, don't you? The Kingdom's Excecution order isn`t enough now?! You need the Empire coming down on your heads?!"

Sweat could be seen forming on the Don's Brow, as his four men seemed to be reaching for their weapons.

"Not at all, Don Ganjo.", said Mona, calmly.

"Bull!", shouted the Don. "I don't know how old you are under that skin, but if you've been in this even half as long as I have, you know what happened to the last people who screwed an Imperial on a deal. "

Most everyone in the back channels knew about the incident near the harbor twelve years prior. A small band from the known group of thieves called _The Rist_ had stolen cargo from a Mediterran trading vessel. They fled into the sea of Albia, and seemed quite successful at first. So successful that no one in Pridemoor even knew about it for a few weeks. Slowly, however, members of _The Rist_ had begun to go missing, one by one. Then, one by one, in the dead of night, pieces of every member of _The Rist_ were slowly found in the town square of the outpost,each one nailed to a post with a note carrying the Imperial seal and only two words. "Never Again."

The Imperial Colonial Governor and the Council of Nobles were never said to discuss the matter in any meetings. And all who brought up the matter further were silenced. Eventually it was decreed that anyone who was found to have slighted the Empire in any way would be turned over to them, no questions asked. The few who did were never seen again.

"We're both smarter than that."

Mona sighed, sitting back down in her seat, leaning ever so slightly forward, staring daggers at the Don while supporting her chin with folded hands. "Mediterra surely wouldn't be involved in any transactions using this. At least, not directly. Besides, look where we are. No one has more reason to have incurred Imperial wrath than the Trovers. Yet this place still stands."

"Then what, praytell, would you expect us to do with these?"

"Do...do I really have to explain it to you?" Mona's eyes flattened a she could see the five men stare at her in utter seriousness. "Okay...fine. You guys have... clients, right? Well, let's say that one of those clients wants to get out of a contract, or wants to inform the authorities as to the private nature of your business. You wouldn't want that, right? Well, how _interesting_ would it be to the constable if they found a bag of illicitly gained Fariths in their home or workplace?"

"You... ha.. ha.. HA! Well... I can see how that would be... useful to us." The Don's posture eased itself. "How long's this hunk of junk gonna last us, though? The other one you gave us just stopped working after a while."

Plague Knight smirked. The organic catalytic mixture inside the device would always run out eventually, making it stop functioning after too many uses. It was simply a mixture of the remains of mice and sawdust, but no one outside of the Alchemist's Guild would know that.

Mona's eyes grew softer, and her expression transformed into a grin that a teacher would give a student after they promised to behave. "I'm so happy you get so much use out of our product! Nothing lasts forever, I'm afraid, and the darn thing just wears out after repeated use. You'll surely get your money's 20,000 originally agreed upon isn't that much in the long run, after all!"

"T..Twenty?"

Mona's expression did not change. "Don Ganjo, of course you know that our guild is always busy pushing the frontiers of Alchemical knowledge. As such, we value our patrons, and their interests! However, as operating costs grow, so does the necessity to expand our clientele. I can understand if our premium offerings are out of your financial capability, but if that is so, then we may look to other capable patrons for alternative revenue streams!"

"Such as?"

"Well, let's see. There's the _Tower Reavers_ , the _Honest Woodsmen_ , _Corsaella..."_

The four men immediately drew their weapons, with only the Don's word holding them back.

"This is a setup! You know all of them want to rush in on our territory! You Toadski.."

At that moment, all the while keeping her teacher's grin, Mona placed her hand on a portion of the table, and the beautiful wooden furnishing writhed and exploded as if coming alive. Thick wooden vines shot out at all angles, knocking the men's weapons out of their hands and ensnaring them in a wooden prison. The expensive food on the table crashed and splattered all around the room, Plague Knight having to dodge a few stray pieces of cake. As the thick briar began to congeal, razor sharp vines poked out centimeters from each man's neck.

"When did you..."

"People usually don't like to look what I'm doing. I simply take advantage of that fact, much like how you take advantage of opportunities with your clients." Mona's expression still did not change.

"F..Fi"

"Speaking of which, you should probably take advantage of the opportunity right in front of you. Don't worry, I won't raise the price with a blade to your necks. I'm not a highway robber."

"Fine... Twenty..Thousand. Just.. let.."

Mona touched the glowing symbol on the table once more, and the vines receded; the weapons clanking to the floor. The Don's Traders sighed in relief as the blades moved away from their necks.

"Grant.. Give em' all four.", said the Don.

Without hesitating, the man on the far right rushed over, reaching into his deep coat pockets to reveal four intricately carved statues in velvet bags.

"Payment confirmed.", said Mona, her face contorting back to a neutral state. "Oh, and one more thing." Mona grabbed the Gold Farith the Don had made earlier, and placed it on the device, switched back to its first mode. In a flash, the coin was absorbed, and out popped a standard Pridemoor Gold. "No accounting for exchange rates though."

Mona put the device back into its case, and gave it to Grant. "A pleasure doing business with you."

The Don looked at her and Shivered. "Y..yeah. We're square now, right."

"Of course!", said Mona, briefly shifting back into her teacher's smile.

The Don's men left the room first, followed by Plague Knight and Mona, then Don Ganjo. As a Gulper Mage came to confirm the end of the room's use, Mona shouted out one last time.

"Don Ganjo, would you please consider the contract proposed to you earlier by our guild, if you wouldn't mind?"

The Don looked back and nodded the slightest bit, before shivering and looking back.

"That went quite well, hee hee!", said Plague Knight.

"Yeah, looks like it. Now we just have to exchange with the Trovers and we're all set to move on tomorrow to get to the real deal, so to speak."

As if on cue, one of the Gulper Mages floated towards the two from around a corner, settling in front of Mona.

"Fee."

The Gulper Mage stared, its eyes unblinking and unmoving.

"Here you go! Four Artifacts from the old empire. That should be more than enough for our room fee as well as 20,000 in addition to be added to our guild's account."

The mage stared at the statues in curiosity, examining them carefully with their hands. Plague Knight could have sworn that he saw a look of surprise in the mage's eyes.

"Not now.", they said.

"Excuse me?", said Plague Knight.

"Rare. Very Rare. Come back four hours. Show Boss. Room Fee is... on house." Plague Knight wasn't sure, but he heard a twinge of laughter in the mage's gurgling, whispy voice.

Mona, for the first time that day, was at a loss for words. She hadn't thought there would be any sort of issue at this stage. Unlike the Traders, who depended partially on their contact with the alchemists to seem like more of a threat in their territory, the Trovers were a multinational and sweeping organization larger than many officially sanctioned guilds. It was comparing a wolf to a lion, and a lion to a dragon. They had to acquiesce to their whims or risk annihilation.

"Of course.. yes. We'll be here.", said Mona.

The mage motioned for the two to follow, and led them back to the entrance. In a flash, the two were back on Setton Road, among the lesser traders and lesser treasures.

"I wasn't prepared to come back. I don't even know who we're meeting. By "boss", that mage could've meant anyone from the manager of Fortune's Port to the top of the Trovers himself."

Mona's brow furrowed in frustration as she walked angrily down the path to the main road, Plague Knight trailing behind.

"This..this is really bad. Really bad.", Mona repeated under her breath. " I have a lot of research to do on the Trovers' power structure. I don't think the Traders gave us fakes. They wouldn't risk losing our support. Though... any possible outcome shouldn't be discounted accounting its probability versus the severity of its possibility. We have to prepare for anything. Plague Knight, I.."

"Mona... hold on.. please. Just take a deep breath." Plague Knight hopped on a crate on the side of the street, and looked her eye to eye under his double set of hoods. He could see the panic behind her eyes as he knew she was already thinking of dozens of backup plans and escape routes, as well as the future of the guild.

"The person I saw at that negotiation wouldn't let something like this rattle them. She was someone who could handle anyone and anything." There was no dishonesty in Plague Knight's words. When he saw Mona at her work, whether it was Alchemical symbology or talking with pretty much anyone but the council, he couldn't imagine anyone better. Truly, he thought, there was no one better that Alchemia Knight could have picked to be among the leaders of Alchemy in Pridemoor.

"Plague Knight... thanks." Mona stopped, and her panic seemed to cool into a relaxed unease. "That wasn't... I mean, yeah. Sorry. I'd probably make a mistake if I got stuck in turbo like that. I _do_ have to catch up on.. what is that on your foot?"

Plague Knight looked down and saw a small piece of paper attached to the bottom of his boot. Annoyed, he stuck his foot in the air and wiggled it until the paper came loose. Giggling, Mona snatched it out of the air.

"Heh, let's see..." Mona read the paper, and her eyes grew wide enough to swim in. "No...no way."

Plague Knight looked around in curiosity and excitement, getting off the crate and running behind Mona, who was holding the paper close to her face.

"What is it? Let me see! Let me see!" He hopped around behind her, trying to catch a glimpse of the paper that had her seemingly enraptured.

Finally snapping out of it, Mona dragged Plague Knight over to a nearby alleyway in a burst of speed. If Plague Knight didn't know better, he would have sworn Mona had used a Fleet Flask.

"This is a ticket! A ticket to _Le Bouquet Magique_! And it's... for Tonight." Mona let out an exasperated sigh. Plague Knight could sense she was quite tired of the emotional rollercoaster that life had seemed hell-bent on taking her on.

"Now wait...", said Plague Knight, tapping his foot. "This is a sign from the Gods, hee hee! Let me handle the negotiation tonight. You go ahead and enjoy yourself. Who knows when your next chance will be!"

Mona's exasperation evaporated and turned into a cold stare. "Plague Knight. This. is. important. I don't know how much you've learned or found out on your own, but the Trovers are no joke. If things go bad, things go bad for all of us. You. Me. The whole guild. To leave that kind of responsibility behind to go enjoy myself at a show... Would you ever trust someone like that again?"

Plague Knight was taken aback. The way Mona looked at him... he could tell that she was disappointed in him for his suggestion. The last thing he wanted for Mona was more stress. He took a deep breath.

"Listen, Mona. I'm sorry if I worded that poorly, but honestly, I was going to ask you to go out and enjoy yourself tonight and let me handle it anyway."

"You..."

"Let me finish. Mona, I'm sorry about what the council said the other day. I know how hard we worked on that potion. Ever since then, you've been acting like you've been trying to prove your worth to them. You, the one who hates doing field work, suggested to Gash Knight that you go on this trip. "

"That's not..."

"Mona, please, hee! I could tell from the moment you explained your reasoning to me that those were the very things you said to Gash to get him to let you go. You phrased your answer to me not as 'he said these were the reasons why', but as 'these are the reasons why'. In fact, I'd wager that you made him think it was his own idea to send us by working off of a careless statement he made about something nearly unrelated."

Mona stood firmly, her face changing from disappointment to amusement. "Am I that obvious?"

"Only to me. But to be fair I've known you nearly my whole life. Hee hee hee!"

Mona laughed along with him. "Yeah... I'm sorry I snapped. But my reasoning still stands. I don't think I could forgive myself if something went wrong."

"I won't let anything go wrong. I swear it." Plague Knight's eyes burned through his mask with the kind of honesty Alchemists did not usually have the luxury of expressing. "You've done a lot for the guild. You've dedicated your work and free time to the advancement of Alchemy. At the very least you can get back one good memory from our childhood."

"The gods know those are in short supply." Mona rolled her eyes. "Plaguey... I am doing this for Alchemy."

Plague Knight cocked his head to the side. " _Verbal Alchemy_ doesn't count. Hee!"

Mona stood back and bowed in Plague Knight's direction. "Tis a shame, for your Verbal Alchemy has bested this maiden!"

She stood back up, and gave a genuine smile. "I trust you, Plaguey. Read up what you can, find out anything if you can, and try to get done as quick as possible. I guess we'll... go back to the hotel, and I'll go get dressed for the night."

With an internal sigh of relief, Plague Knight followed Mona out of the alley. For a second, he thought the ticket he had bought earlier would have gone completely to waste. But he was glad it didn't.

* * *

"So... remind me why I have to follow you again? And may I add, why are you wearing your mask? Aren't you supposed to be in disguise?", asked Sir Percival as the seemingly eternal sunset of the Outpost finally began to give way to evening.

All over, streetlamps were being lit by magicists hired by the town to keep commerce going well into the night. The experts lit them from the ground, while the hired assistants had to use stepladders to get close enough. The Machinist guild, for all of its power, still needed magic for some things.

"Hello.. Earth to _Pierre_?"

Sir Percival waved his hand in front of Plague Knight's face as he gazed off.

"What!? Oh.. sorry. Don't use code names now. We're not "in charachter" for anyone at the moment. I'm representing the guild for a meeting. No need for disguises, as if anyone would recognise an alchemist by sight, anyway. Though, since you didn't really need one in the first place, you can use yours. "

Sir Percival glanced around nervously. "Yes.. I'll defintiely use mine now if that's alright with you. So... Why am I here?"

Plague Knight kept moving onward from the hotel, trying to speak softly enough not to draw attention but loud enough for Sir Percival to hear.

"I need you to pretend to be... one of us. You don't have to say it, but act like you're an alchemist. I need it to seem like it's not just me where we're going so they don't think they have some kind of upper hand on me numerically."

"Very well! Holding people hostage against their will, acting like you're better than everyone even though every known authority wants you dead, and general rudeness it is!"

"Hee! As if anyone holds people hostage _according_ to their will.", snickered Plague Knight.

"Spend some time with the Council of Nobles. Or Better yet, don't. Not very much to do when you've got all the money in the world just for being born. Let's just say... people's minds wander. I'll leave it at that."

Plague Knight shivered at the thought. "Ugh.. I suppose we did you another favor, then?"

"In some ways, I suppose." Sir Percival glanced at the rows of shops and restaurants that dotted the main road. All around, the people who worked at The Guild's factories were laughing and smiling, toasting to their families and workmates.

"But... I'm glad its over."

Plague Knight stopped at the corner he would turn to soon be at Setton Road once more. "Sir Percival... if you don't mind my asking, what did you do for the Council of Nobles?"

Sir Percival glanced upwards. "My now! It seems to be a beautiful night to be going to an establishment of ill repute where we could possibly die. How quaint. Let us carry on, shall we?"

Shrugging, Plague Knight watched as Percival sprang ahead a few steps. It didn't matter, really, though his reason for being so avoidant could become a thing of concern.

It was only about a half-hour later that they arrived at Fortune's Port.

Plague Knight gave the password, and the door opened, just like before. Unlike before, however, was the atmosphere within. All around, one could see people drinking, gambling, and trading piles of coins and artifacts at a pace that Plague Knight could barely keep up with.

"My..my..my..." Plague Knight looked upwards, and could see Percival's face absolutely beaming over the gambling tables. "I.. had no idea there were going to be games of chance... is that.. Black Jack, by any chance?"

"Looks like someone changed their tune! Hee hee!", said Plague Knight, smirking under his mask.

Percival snapped his neck back towards Plague Knight at a speed he didn't think possible. He actually did a small leap out of surprise.

"Listen! My good sir... Please, if there is any time at all, would you perhaps allow me to indulge in some pursuits of an entertaining and fiscally responsible nature?" Percival was now kneeling down in front of Plague Knight at the top of the stairs, creating a scene with some onlookers down below.

Plague Knight shoved him away nervously. "No! Absolutely not! This meeting is incredibly important. "

Percival stared down at Plague Knight with big, watery eyes.

"Still No!"

Sir Percival Slumped over, defeated.

"Do you even have any money?" Before he could answer, a Gulper Mage floated over to the two of them, silently wriggling their fishtail-like hood that covered their head.

"You?", said the Gulper Mage, once again floating in front of Plague Knight just above eye level. "Yes, me. I've brought someone else with me to negotiate. I'd like to proceed now, if that's alright with you."

The mage tiled back into an upright position, still floating. Their arms gently splayed out as if to cast a spell, but instead began to speak again.

"NO. JUST YOU."

The mage's voice reverberated in Plague Knight and Percival's ears, shaking them to their cores.

"Oh.. okay. Lead the way then.", said Plague Knight with all the calmness he could possibly muster. _"Everything's going to be fine. Trade. Talk. Get Out. It's probably that they don't want any more people knowing about sensitive matters. Yes. That's it."_

The Gulper Mage motioned towards Plague Knight to follow him, as Percival stood dumbfounded. In the shock of the moment, Plague Knight had forgotten about him.

"Oh.. you go ahead and do whatever you want...apparently."

Percival's face contorted to an odd mix of joy and terror, which quickly shifted fully to joy as he seemed to dive into the gambling area head first.

Not looking back, Plague Knight followed the mage, who kept their upright posture as they floated between the bar/gambling area and the maze of meeting rooms, delving further and further into the back of Fortune's Port.

"Quite a large building, eh? The Trovers seem to be doing quite well, heh-hee!"

Without turning around or stopping, the Gulper Mage reverberated a reply.

"BOSS TALKS. NOT ME. FOLLOW."

He decided it was best to keep silent until they arrived at the proper door.

Unlike last time, the mage made very few turns through the maze of wooden walls and doors, hugging closely to the edge of the building where all sorts of treasures, art belonging to ancient kingdoms, and skulls of great beasts was hung along the walls.

Finally, the mage stopped at a particularly well-maintained door near the end of one of the halls, guarded by two other Gulper Mages, each one nearly identical to the one that had Brought Plague Knight there.

The mage leading Plague Knight nodded first at the guard on the left, and then to the guard on the right. Once again, the door opened without a move from any of them.

"Go."

Uncharacteristically, the mage shoved Plague Knight into the room.

* * *

It was an odd feeling, a mix of anticipation and worry, of dread and joy Mona was feeling as she stood outside the theatre hallway in the guise of _Marie_ , her alterego for the current assignment.

" _I trust Plague. I trust Plague.. Plague Knight."_

She had to keep repeating this to herself to get her mind off of the meeting with the Trovers.

" _He's better at things like this than me, anyway. He can always tell when I'm lying and is better at remembering details. That should be more important in something like this. I think it'd actually be fun to see. I wish I was there... NO... "_

Mona shook her head to snap herself back to reality. She was here, she was right outside the theatre, and the crowd was now starting to file into their seats. It was too late to change her decision, and she knew that Plague Knight would probably feel as if she didn't believe he could do the job if she suddenly barged in. Plus, the Trovers might take their guild less seriously if she just suddenly came in.

" _Also,",_ she thought to herself as she took her seat. " _Plague Knight probably did this to give himself an opportunity to prove himself as much as it was for me, heh. He really IS good at this. If I didn't know better, I'd say he pai.."_

Mona's thoughts were cut off as the orchestra began to tune their instruments. The theatre was set up more lavishly than one might think for a town far away from Pridemoor Keep, with silk curtains and authentic looking furniture and props for the first scene. The backdrop came into view as the Overture started and Magicists dimmed the house lights to focus those on the stage. Painted lovingly, the glorious "steps" of the Tower of Song that loomed over the majority of the Imperial Capitol of Eifelle were depicted as leading to the stage, showing that this was a story involving the High Nobles of the Mediterran Empire 300 years ago. Even Lake Cecily could be seen off in the distance. A man dressed in the fashions of the time, with a fancy ruffled collar and a suit of deep crimson, shimmering with jewelled buttons, walked onto the stage. His back was then turned towards the audience, staring at the "city" on the steps of the great tower below.

"Lord Mathieu!", shouted a man's voice from offstage.

"I'm here, Romain.", said the man with his back to the audience.

Running could be heard from offstage as a man in an imperial officer's uniform ran onto the stage. Catching his breath, he stood next to Lord Mathieu.

"My Lord, where have you been? General Moreau has information on the traitors! We just might be able to finally end this menace once and for all! This is truly the defining moment in the history of our empire!"

Still with his back to the stage, Lord Mathieu slowly turned his head to the soldier. "Romain, just hold on one second. Now, we have known each other for quite a while, yes?"

"Why, nearly all our lives, my Lord!"

"And in that time, how many instances have there been when you have exaggerated the importance or meaning of some bit of information you've obtained?"

"Why, none at all!" Lord Mathieu turned towards the young soldier, this time looking down at him harshly. A soft sound of laughter started to emerge from the audience.

"Well, maybe once or twice."

"The Dragon of Lake Cecily that was an Alligator." Magicists from below the stage used spells of illusion to briefly illustrate each situation in a brief show of light above the audience.

"Or thrice..."

"The secret cabal of mages that turned out to be a cooking contest."

"Well, true. But.."

"The shadow beast that stole your assignment that turned out to be a badger."

"Oh, You helped me with that one!"

The audience erupted into a much louder laugh as Mathieu took Romain by the shoulder and walked him around the stage.

"Romain! Please! I know you want to prove yourself, but there is truly no emergency in all of our beloved Eifelle that necessitates such panic! There is none now, and Empress willing, there will never be."

"I know, my lord! But there really is some information..."

Mathieu let go of Romain as a spotlight began to shine down on him, the lights behind dimmed, and the chorus slowly came into view, dressed as the townspeople of Eifelle.

"Romain, Romain, Romain. Can't you see? All that is, was, and will ever be; to them, to you, and of course, to me; is just simply _Or-di-na-ry..._."

The orchestra and chorus began to sing the backing vocals as the first number of the play began, with Mathieu describing everyday life in Eifelle, on the steps of the Tower of Song.

" _Here's where everything is all relaxed and nice, in the beginning of the story. I wonder how it'd be if things ever stayed that way. Strap in, Romain! You'll get way more than you bargained for!"_ , thought Mona excitedly. This was before Romain was humiliated by Julien, before he accidentally bumped into the young magicist Cecile at the ground level of the city, and before he found the spirit of the old Enchantress hidden in the titular Bouquet of crystalline, unwilting flowers that he would show to Cecile.

In that moment, Mona was happy. "Thanks, Plague Knight.", she whispered under her breath.

* * *

Plague Knight was not happy.

"So, Alchemist. I'm assuming you know why you're here?"

The speaker of those words was a tall, broad-shouldered man with a brownish-gold uniform with gold-tassled pauldrons. He seemed to be in his early middle years, with a sharply maintained beard that flayed at his jaw and ended in a point at his chin. He was beginning to show wrinkles at the edges of his eyes, but other than that, seemed to be in peak physical condition.

The room Plague Knight was seated in was nothing like the room that was used to negotiate with the Traders. Here, the heads of beasts that roamed the land, sea and sky hung all around the walls, with a cold, metallic table in the middle, and a roaring fireplace at the far end of the room. Unlike last time, no food was laid out. Only a bottle containing some liquid Plague Knight assumed to be alcoholic, and two glasses.

"I assume it's because I've won the 'world's greatest alchemist' prize, and you're waiting for juuuuuust the right moment to spring it on me. Hee hee!"

The man gave a short, polite laugh. "Ha! No, I'm afraid not. It doesn't really have to do with those statues you brought over. Rest assured, they're worth exactly what you think they are, and if all goes well, we should both be on our way soon."

Plague Knight's eyes narrowed within his mask. He recalled that the Gulper Mage examined the statues carefully and insisted they were rare.

"If you're wondering about our little helpers, they're explicitly instructed never to speak directly about Trover business. Whatever you got from them was the best their conditioning would allow them to say without mentioning anything directly." The man moved over to the wine and poured a glass for himself, then gestured to Plague Knight, who politely refused before taking out his own blend of drink, straw and all.

"However, going back to your first guess, you actually weren't too off-base."

Plague Knight set his drink on the table, and looked excitedly at the man. "Ah, so are the Trovers going to realize that Alchemical gold is functionally and molecularly identical to that mined out of the mountain range? Because that would be.."

The man slammed his hand down on the table.

"Your fool's gold is.."

"It is NOT fool's gold!" Yelled back Plague Knight as he jumped up. "Fool's Gold is Pyrite, a shiny mineral that amateurs mistake for the genuine article. Our Alchemical science uses organic catalysis fuelled by mana sent through a transmutation circle, rearranging the molecular structure of lead to one identical to that of gold. For EVERY conceivable purpose, it IS gold, not some kind of facsimile or fake!"

The man's eyes swelled with rage, but then cooled as his mouth contorted into a smile. "...Regardless, it is worth a great deal less than nothing to anyone in this kingdom, Alchemist."

Plague Knight's stare was unmoved. "Just who am I speaking with, anyway?"

"How rude. One would normally introduce themselves before asking. In any case, you may refer to me as Deputy Commander Renard of the Trovers."

Plague Knight backed off. "Deputy Commander? One step away from Treasure Knight himself? Why would you be here talking to.."

"Ahem,", said Renard, clearing his throat loudly.

"Oh, yes. Hee! I am Plague Knight, agent and researcher for the Alchemist's Guild."

Renard circled halfway around the table, pouring himself more wine. "Knight? An Alchemist and an Errant? I'd bet you have quite the story to tell."

"What exactly do you want from us?", said Plague Knight, eager to get on with business.

Renard started to snicker before regaining his composure. Plague Knight was already on edge, but tried to keep what Mona would do in mind, even if he was most likely laughing at the idea of him being anywhere near the same level of influence and power as Treasure Knight.

"Well, what is it that Alchemists do, exactly? You make potions, you make poisons, you turn things into other things and for all I've heard, are adept at large explosions."

Plague Knight rolled his eyes and fumed underneath his mask over the gross oversimplification of his trade. As usual, he was quite glad he was wearing it. This time, he wouldn't be baited into an outbrust.

Renard gave him a quick look before continuing, then reached into his jacket pocket for a scroll that he unfurled along the metallic table.

"This is a map of some undersea tunnels we've been attempting to map out at the bottom of the Albian sea with the Iron Whale."

Plague Knight's eyes went wide. "You...you're just showing something like this to me?! An Outsider?" The Trovers were nothing if not secretive about everything involving their operations underwater. The Iron Whale was one thing that you simply did not discuss when talking to the Trovers considering its history. Because they had the only known vessel capable of travelling underwater in the Albian sea, they essentially had cornered the market on salvage to the point where no one else even bothered to try.

"Yes, I am. And you'll soon see why.", said Renard, now pointing his finger to a short squiggle near the bottom of the map. Plague Knight quickly did his best to scan the rest of the map as best he could without looking conspicuous. "This is an underwater tunnel we discovered recently. Our Oceanographers believe that due to the water composition we have sampled flowing through it, this tunnel links the Albian sea with the Euras Ocean."

"Let me guess.. The tunnel should be wide enough to take the Iron Whale through, giving you a secret trade route that no one else has ever seen. However, there's probably some debris in the way that needs the delicate touch of an Alchemist. BOOM! Hee hee."

"Yes, that is partially correct..."

"But I'd gather that there is more to this than a simple demolition job. Otherwise with your organization so close to being recognized as an official guild, you wouldn't risk such a major operation with us."

Renard was unfazed. "I see you're more than you appear to be.", he said with a tone that was coated half in disdain, half in surprise. "You will be working with another demolitions expert on this, should your guild take it on. He's more versed in...conventional methods. At any rate, the 'blockage' in the tunnel is something the likes of which I have never seen before. To describe it any further would be giving information far too sensitive to someone who has not even officially signed on."

Renard rolled up the map and casually tossed it into the fire, making sure it burned to a crisp.

Plague Knight was overwhelmed. A job coming from the top brass of the Trovers was more than he or Mona could have ever hoped for from this meeting.

"Yes! I mean, I... we would be very interested in this project, but there must be some more details given, and a job of such magnitude would require the approval of our guild council. But as for myself, I can almost completely assure you that this would meet their approval. If I could just learn some of what exactly you would need from us right now in terms of supplies, manpower, and equipment, I'm sure this whole thing could go through so much faster. Not to mention, there is the issue of our compensation, of course. Hee!"

Renard looked over to Plague Knight with a confident glare, and stretched out his hand.

"Pull this off, and we'll all be richer than the Empress herself."

Plague Knight grabbed his hand and shook it, his eyes beaming. "Hee hee HAA! I'd love to! But unfortunately it's not my decision to make, as I've said before."

Renard backed off, walking along the walls with a stern expression on his face. " Plague Knight. I was instructed by my own superior to gain an answer today, just as I'm sure you were instructed to trade those statues for the agreed-upon amount of funds to be placed into your account with us, the only way I'm certain any group, whether it be gastronomers or gangsters, would ever trade with you."

He stood in front of the fireplace, his shadow looming over the rest of the room as Plague Knight took another sip from his drink.

"Thus, while I understand your position in the guild, I also understand you are a Knight Errant for gods' sake. Surely, your word must be worth _something_ to them. I have a contract of service right here. It is waiting for either a signature or the fireplace." Renard unfurled another scroll, this time full of long legalistic phrases(which was ironic considering the dubious legality of the whole situation), with a dotted line at the end.

Plague Knight slowly put his drink away.

 _You're lucky we ever took you in._

He walked over to Renard, the determination in his eyes glowing through his mask.

 _You do nothing but compromise our security and secrecy._

He looked over at the contract, carefully scanning for anything that would endanger the guild or anyone in it.

 _All you really ever do is hold Mona back._

He signed the contract.

Renard, looking quite pleased, rolled up the scroll and placed it in his jacket pocket.

"Well, I suppose that's that, eh?"

"Yes, but I need the de..."

He grabbed Plague Knight by the shoulder and briskly walked him to the door.

"Those and other instructions will be forwarded to you at a more appropriate time and place. Now, if you'll excuse me Sir Errant, I have other business to attend to. Good Evening!"

In a flash, Plague Knight was out in the hallway once more, just in time to hear a cacophonous crashing of tables and glassware, followed by an all too familiar yell.

* * *

"Stop! Please wait!", cried out Romain, in his tattered uniform, lying on the ground and reaching out towards stage right.

"Please, sir soldier! I will return with help, I promise. I shall go get Lord Mathieu. ", said Cecile, the young magicist in her blue acolyte robes.

"No, Cecile, wait!", he yelled out one last futile gasp as she ran off.

" _Cecile... I guess I can't really blame her for coming to that answer at this point, but if I was in her position, I'd have at least heard what Romain had to say."_ , thought Mona, fully consumed by the story.

Romain, meanwhile, propped himself up against the backdrop of the cold, dark woods where he had run into Cecile the second time since childhood, ironically, where they had played when they were little.

" _No doubt also to wanting to economically reuse a stage background while giving it some kind of emotional resonance in the story."_

"Cecile!", yelled out Romain, to the sky. "Every time." Romain was completely defeated. "She told me last time we were here, that we would fulfil both of our dreams. Now, she's rising up the ranks of the Imperial Academy, and I'm just... me. I can't even follow a simple order from Lord Mathieu."

Romain, backing up into the tree backdrop, was about to say another line, however the outlined door on the tree opened and swallowed him up, as stagehands quickly rotated the stage props as the lights dimmed. When the lights came back up, Romain had found himself in a dark, foreboding cave filled with crystalline lights.

"Where, where am I now?", he said as he walked around the stage, admiring the new backdrop of sparkling crystals.

"Be calm, sir soldier. You are safe, and you are needed.", said a soft, yet strong sounding female voice that echoed all around the theatre with the aid of acoustic amplifiers.

"Who... who are you? Do you need help? Are you lost?", said Romain, whose injuries slowly gave way to his curiosity and eagerness in aiding others.

"It is not I who is lost and in need of aid.", echoed the voice once more."Please, step forward."

Romain did so with caution, until a spotlight revealed a previously darkened portion of the stage. There, floating above a pedestal, was a magnificent Bouquet of Crystal Flowers.

"Beautiful.", Remarked Romain, spellbound.

"I am here.", said the voice.

"You... you are inside this bouquet?"

The lights dimmed around him as Romain froze in place, while new actors, a man and a woman, took the spotlight and began to dance to a version of the Overture, a more mature and melancholy version of the song that was sung when Romain and Cecile reminisced about their childhood, playing together in the woods.

" _It was so long, so very long ago..."_ , the voice from offstage began to sing, as she began to regale Romain with a sorrowful tale of how she was once a Magicist like Cecile thousands of years ago, but was sealed within the Bouquet by a jealous rival, a woman who stole her lover-to-be and everything she lived for. Now, with so many years gone, all she wanted to do was help other couples avoid her tragic fate.

" _Can't honestly blame Plague Knight for falling for that story, with what he just experienced.",_ thought Mona. Catching herself, she shook her head rapidly. " _I mean Romain, ROMAIN! Ahhh! Come on Mona! He's fine! And way more resourceful than Romain at this point in the story! He won't do anything reckless... yeah."_

Mona settled back into her seat, forcing herself to refocus on the play. Romain was now making a deal with the spirit of the Bouquet. Here was where everything really started to kick into motion.

" _Plague Knight's fine. Plague Knight's fine! He's proooobably finishing up by now, maybe back in the hotel room even, reading some Alchemy books...yeah... that's it! Totally."_

A steak knife narrowly flew past Plague Knight's face as he used his burst to fly though the anarchic scene in front of him.

"You! Get back here!", yelled a patron.

"My winnings!", yelled a woman whose table had just been split open by a stray bolt from a Gulper Mage trying to restore order. Cards and chips flew everywhere as Plague searched frantically to find Percival.

Plague Knight saw another dish being thrown and realized an opportunity. As naturally as taking a breath, Plague Knight adjusted the dial on his boots and dug his toes into the switch he had built into them himself. Taking another leap, he released the switch the instant his foot made contact with the plate, sending him soaring into the air, the Float Burst he had selected allowing him to scan the entire mazelike building while he floated gently near the building's rafters. Of course, using this also made him a sitting (or rather, floating) duck in midair, so he preferred not to use it when being directly targeted.

" _Percival, I swear if you screwed this up for me the Explodatorium will have a new source of glue! Now where are you..."_

Suddenly, a flash of bright red light stood out to Plague Knight in a corner of the large area, on the side of the building near the entrance. Cancelling the burst, he landed above the rooms and switched back to his standard equipment. He had to be ready for anything.

Running as fast as he could, Plague Knight's blood ran cold when he cast his eyes on the scene below him.

A man in a tattered brown cloak stood fuming above a terrified Percival, as long, glowing blades formed from pure mana jutted out from his ragged sleeves, highlighting his bandaged hands, armoured in greaves.

"P..Please! Good Sir.. whatever misunderstandings we may have had in the past, I can assure you I am not the horseman you remember!"

Percival was dashing frantically to avoid the glowing blades of light that crashed down all around him, running comically in circles.

"Idiot! How could we have a misunderstanding if we've never met before! You...I'll never forgive you! That was the best job I've ever had!"

Percival saw an opening and tried to make a break for it, but the cloaked man held out his arm and clotheslined the poor horseman, sending him flying into a wall.

"What a fitting place for someone like you to meet your end. I'm going to enjoy this." The cloaked man raised his bladed arm high, ready to strike, as Percival closed his teary eyes and the man began to lower his blade.

 **CRACK!**

All Percival could see was an explosion of smoke, until someone appeared in his view, slowly becoming clearer. A moderately-sized but powerful-looking figure stood in front of him, the glowing red blade seemingly frozen in place, as another dimly glowing staff with the head of a crow at its handle held it in place.

"As much as I enjoyed your little display,", said Plague Knight. " I can't let you do that. Hee hee!"

Percival had to rub his eyes twice to be sure of the scene taking place before him.

"Who are you?!", said the cloaked man.

"I'm someone who came here to do business and leave. And You are someone who is making that _extremely_ difficult. "

The dim glow worse off from Plague Knight's staff as the cloaked man's mana blade crashed down, making a hole in the floor. Plague Knight leaped away in time, and put away his staff.

"I don't have time for whoever you are. But I have a score to settle with that horseman. Now if you'll excuse me..."

The man charged up his mana blade once more, taking a step forward.

At that moment, a small explosion raced towards the man's foot, sending him leaping backwards, glaring at the source.

"Perhaps you didn't understand my implication. I could care less about his horsehide, but I need him alive."

"Rrrah!", shouted the cloaked man, losing his patience, leaping up to his feet once more." Out of my way, you little bird-faced freak!"

Faster than ever before, he charged forward, this time with both mana blades lit up like the dawn. Plague Knight leapt out of the way, using a burst to get behind him, and lobbed vials of black powder at his back, finally using his second leap to get back to higher ground.

"Ahh!", shouted the man as his back took a repeated beating, sending him flying into the now unoccupied wall, blades first. "It's clear that you also have a death wish!", he said, screaming into the street he had just inadvertently punched a sizeable hole into.

Meanwhile, the Gulper Mages had begun to gather in reaction to the noise, their orbs of green energy circling them as they floated forward.

"PAY." they shouted.

The cloaked man turned back in a panic, and saw that Percival had taken advantage of their confrontation, now making his way out the front door.

"You're not getting away from me!", he yelled, partially stumbling in fear of the Gulper Mages, and made his way out onto Setton Road.

Plague Knight now was left alone with six Gulper Mages staring at him, orbs of green energy at the ready.

"Um... You saw that it was that guy, right? How about, in a show of appreciation and tribute to the Trovers, I'll go get him back for you, so he can take care of this... right? Hee?"

"Bring Back Alive.", they growled in unison. "NOW."

Plague Knight took the hint, disappearing through the hole as well. He hoped Percival had at lest some modicum of intelligence and would try to disappear into a crowd on one of the major roads.

* * *

"Thank you, Sir Romain! Thank you!", said a village woman after he had just passed by with the Magic Bouquet. "It is my pleasure, madam! Just remember to thank the Magicist Cecile!"

Romain walked off stage as more villagers gathered.

"Isn't that soldier just wonderful?!", said another woman.

"That Bouquet, such an incredible artifact! It turned three green apples into emeralds!", said a fruit seller.

"It turned my old wooden horse into an Onyx statue! Now I can afford to send my children to the academy!", said the man whose business was struggling in the beginning of the play.

"Ha! It saved my old tree that I had planted as a boy from dying! Now it'll be a family treasure for generations, a tree of amber!", said yet another voice from the chorus in the crowd.

" _And it's all thanks to the magicist Cecile!",_ they sang out in unison, beginning the next number as the orchestra stirred up a catchy melody.

"Ooh yes, _Magicist Cecile_!", whispered Mona to herself, smiling. _"If those two were just honest with each other from the beginning, I wonder how it would have went?"_

The villagers continued to dance about the stage, singing about how wonderful Cecile was and that she should be recognized by the Academy for her grand achievement. Of course, when Romain had brought the Bouquet to Cecile's attention earlier in the play, she was far too distraught by her recently coming in fourth in the exam rankings for her class as well as Romain's tendency to exaggerate, brushing him off as she thought to focus on her studies. Romain, ever-selfless, used the Bouquet to do good in her name.

"Cecile!", shouted the crowd as the orchestra continued the melody of the upbeat, happy song.

"Um..may I help you?", said Cecile, meekly, as she walked in front of the crowd.

" _Magicist Cecile, thank you for my new jewels!_ "

"What?"

" _Magicist Cecile, thank you for my son's school!"_

"But I didn't..."

" _Magicist Cecile, O magicist Ceciiiiiiiile!"_

"What are you talking about?!"

" _Thank you thank you thank you for everything that you do!"_

"Well, I suppose.."

Mona couldn't help but hum the song to herself as Cecile began to become more and more confident, eventually joining in on the song with the villagers as she finally felt appreciated by those around her, them also making note of things she had actually done to help the city in the song.

" _Thank you, thank you, thaaaaaank youuuu... to Maaaagiiiiiciiiist...Cecile!"_

"That's Right!", shouted Cecile at the end of the number, smiling.

A moment later, the audience, with Mona especially, gave a long and loud applause to the song. Whistles and some cries of "Yeah!" were heard in the audience as well as the stage lights dimmed and stagehands quickly reset the stage for the next scene.

"Magicist Cecile, O Magicist Cecile! Ahh, that's going to be stuck in my head for a while, heh heh!", said Mona to herself as the audience's applause started to die down. " _I really wish Plague Knight was here. I hope he can see the show someday."_

* * *

"Ahh! Please, help me!", screamed Percival as he ran along the back alleys and streets of the outpost, struggling to gain a foothold on anything to escape his pursuer.

Plague Knight, who had burst up to the rooftops a moment eariler, lowered his mask's beak in disappointment. _"Of course, he'll go someplace without witnesses where that guy can do whatever he wants. Because that's what a smart person would do! Heh..heh."_

Running and leaping as fast as he was able, Plague Knight caught up to the glowing red blades that were impossible to miss in the darkness.

" _You really have it in for that guy.",_ thought Plague Knight. He readied a few different potions, and threw three of them at the hooded figure once more.

"Graah!", he yelled out in anguish as two direct hits to his back helped Percival escape his grasp again. "You...I'm really beginning to think I should just get rid of you first."

Plague Knight stood at the edge of a rooftop overlooking the alley that the cloaked man stood near the end of; his hooded, beaked figure casting a long shadow illuminated by the city lights. "Wow. And it only took you this long to figure that out! I'm surely no match for Mr. Bloodblades here! Hee Hee Hee!"

The man sheathed his magical implements and removed his hood, revealing tired eyes, short black hair, and a mask covering the lower half of his face. The rest of his cloak soon followed, revealing lightweight but intricate leather and black metal woven armor. His gauntlets, which could be seen more clearly now, were laid with thick, heavy nodules at the fingertips and knuckles, with small slits at the wrist for his blades to spring from. His boots were just as heavy and complex, with seemingly pointless and excessive tubes and straps running across them.

"The name's Randolph. I figured you should know the name of the man who's going to cut you in two.", he said, his brown, tattered cloak billowing out behind him.

"How interesting...", said Plague Knight, with a yawn, now sitting on the edge of the rooftop, playfully kicking his feet. "I'd reply with my name if I'd asked for yours. Heh."

All Plague Knight saw was a flash of crimson as his combat reflexes kicked in, vaulting him to the left from his position on the roof's edge as Randolph's blade, now far wider and diffuse, came crashing down at his former position.

"Wow!", shouted Plague Knight, trying desperately to hide the panic in his voice. "Holding out on me, I see. Hee hee!"

"Now, why on earth would I use the same strategy against a weakling as I would against someone like you?", said Randolph.

"I don't know, probably because I set your cape on fire."

Randolph turned in a panic to see his cloak burning with green flame as Plague Knight vaulted to a safe distance.

" _Tracer Powder. Not very many opportunities to use it, but always funny when you can."_

Plague Knight turned in midair himself to see Randolph catching up with him at a breakneck pace. He was unbelievably fast, almost as fast as him.

Randolph raised his blade as Plague Knight intercepted it with a potion bomb. The explosion threw Plague Knight to a rooftop, the smoke clouding his vision as he maintained his footing. Before he could react, a huge pressure was felt in his midsection as Randolph's boot met with his chest, sending him flying to the roof of a nearby building. Plague Knight winced and clenched his chest. The blow was faster and harder than he had anticipated.

"Ahh!", yelled Plague Knight.

"Pretty good, eh?", said Randolph as he crashed down to the roof himself with a loud thud; his small, burnt cape coming off fully in the wind. Plague Knight charged a burst and readied a new potion in his hand. "Now you'll see what it means to mess with a legend in the making."

Crimson mana suddenly surged through Randolph's boots, and his entire body began to glow brightly as he moved at an unbelievable speed. Plague Knight tried to steady himself as he covered his hand in his cloak and held a potion tightly. Before he could even see the blow coming, Plague Knight turned to the right and met Randolph's glowing fist with the potion clenched in his own. The explosion tore at the muscles in his hand and sent him flying through the air, just in time to see Randolph's boot come crashing down. Plague Knight released the burst he had been charging in his own boots to avoid a direct blow, but the sheer power of Randolph's kick crashing into the roof sped up his own flight, sending him to the edge of the roof, hanging on for dear life.

"Hey! What happened to the jokes? I was kind of enjoying it.",said Randolph, walking over slowly to Plague Knight's position. Looking down and seeing Plague Knight's fingers, he slammed his boot down an instant after Plague Knight let go, watching him tumble down to the alleyway below. Plague Knight scrambled and released a small smoke bomb as he fell, but the brisk winds dissipated it quickly.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you fight someone out of your league. People make mistakes all the time. No worries." He looked down at the small warrior's form, laying in a pile of refuse.

Effortlessly, Randolph leapt down to street level, bending his knees to absorb the impact with his heavy boots. "Not everybody survives them, though." He saw an unconscious Plague Knight lying in a pile of trash, his beaklike mask splitting the air. He could hear the sound of Plague Knight's laboured breathing from his earlier blow.

He unleashed his blade, the magical energy crackling in the night air as his boots stepped over the cobblestones. "You'll just be another loud-mouthed nobody who got on the wrong side of someone with a destiny. A cackling little stepping stone for a great hero in the making. Really, I suppose I'm fulfilling your purpose in existence by taking you out. Heh, you should actually be thanking me!"

Randolph now stood over the unconscious knight, ready to end it. "I just remembered. I never did get your name." His blade lowered quickly, splitting the mask in two. "Then again, it really dosen't matter, does it?"

Randolph put away his mana blade, looking down, noticing the odd lack of blood. "Hmm?" He looked closer, and heard something. His eyes went wide with shock. Somehow, some way, the small man he fought was _still breathing._ "WHAT! HOW?!"

Panicked, he ripped the cloak and mask out of the trash, revealing a pile of spherical containers, with various colors of powder inside them. Their fuses were lit, making a softly hissing noise not too dissimilar from a soft breath.

"Plague Knight.", said a terrifyingly familiar voice from behind him.

Randolph, his face now white with terror, slowly turned around, and saw a small green fire travel between his legs going straight to the pile of containers. "No Wa.."

A tremendous explosion rocked the alleyway as Randolph's terrified form was vaulted forward, his plated armor tearing and flailing apart as Plague Knight held his staff of surging out in front of him, glowing with power. With the precision of a true Alchemist, Randolph slammed forehead-first into Plague Knight's staff, undoing his facemask to reveal an unconscious expression of surprise as the impression of the outline of a crow's head was left deep in his mind.

Plague Knight walked over, checking his pulse. _"Yep, a Magicist as strong as him'd definitely just be out for a few hours."_

He eventually managed to drag Randolph's unconscious body over to the trash to conceal it for the time being, recovering his Alchemical Cloak, which unsurprisingly only had a light covering of dust. His mask, however, was a different story.

"Gah! I only have a few of these!", he said panicked, with exaggerated tears in his eyes. Quickly, he managed to get out some bandages and hastily try to wrap the two halves of his mask together, ending up with something more or less the same, but with a small bow in the middle of the beak.

" _Now to just get the Trovers over here...Wait, what time is it?"_

Plague Knight looked frantically outside the alleyway onto the busy street. A curio store had a grandfather clock in the window, telling him it was 11:13.

"Aah! Noooo!", said Plague Knight, frantically pacing about. "I've gotta get to the theater! I didn't even... ahh!"

All that could be seen was a cloud of smoke as the masked alchemist ran off into the distance, vaulting to the rooftops once more, as Randolph groggedly blinked his eyes.

* * *

"No... it can`t be...", stuttered Romain, kneeling on the stage floor in despair. "Why... I thought you wanted to help everyone! You _did_ help everyone through the bouquet! There is no way you can be an Enchantress!"

"My dear, dear, sweet Romain.", said the Enchantress Aximila, now free of the Bouquet, her beautifully made costume sparkling in the theater with its rows and rows of gemstones arranged in the shape of various types of flowers. "You performed quite well! You should be honored." She picked Romain up from his state of shock and held him close to her. "Everyone in this city built upon the ashes of the old Order of Mages, upon our beautiful Tower of Song that pierces the sky, will return to the rightful days of glory and subservience to me and all others of superior magical ability."

"No..Please...No..", said Romain, trying to back away.

"The gems that everyone received? That you gave to them out of the goodness of your heart? They are the seeds. Slowly gathering their latent essence for a spell like you'll never believe!"

The Orchestra started to play up, starting an upbeat but slow and sinister tune.

" _Ahh, this one. The villain in these always seems to explain way too much of their plan. Still pretty catchy though!",_ thought Mona as Aximila began to sing on stage about her plan to absorb enough essence to get her mana back to its former glorious state; transforming the city of Eifelle into its former status as the grounds of the Tower of Song thousands of years ago as the seat of the Enchanters' power.

As the song went on, Aximila sang louder and louder as Romain tried in vain to fight back, using what little mana he had as well as his lance to slash at the crystal vines that attacked him. Finally, Aximila was pulled away offstage by the stagehand magicists that made her levitate from offstage.

"Here, a reward for your efforts! And don't forget; _Thank the Magicist Cecile!_ Ha ha ha!" Casually, the formerly magical bouquet was tossed over to Romain's wounded form, as he picked it up, now gray and devoid of its former warmth, with its flowers somehow beginning to wilt.

As Romain cradled it like a child, Cecile, who had been knocked out earlier when Aximila has sprung forth from the Bouquet to possess the body of the teacher that had despised her, ran over to him.

"Romain!", she said in a panic.

There was no answer.

"Romain! Are you alright? Tell me what happened! Where is Magistra Verona?"

Looking over, she saw his wounds and immediately ripped a part of her uniform to act as a bandage.

"Cecile.. I am so sorry. It wasn`t supposed to happen this way. I..I..just wanted to help. I wanted them to see how great you were. I never meant for.."

Cecile stopped him, revealing that she had heard a bit of the end of what the Enchantress was saying as she was starting to regain consciousness herself.

"That kind of mana... I didn`t want to believe... I told the Magistra it was dangerous. But a real enchantress straight from the fairy tales?"

"I should have suspected something.", said Romain as he stood up, inspecting his weapon.

"No! Romain...", Cecile said confidently, stopping his words. "I'm supposed to be the Magicist here. I'm the one you put your faith in! I should have taken a better look at it when I had the chance before you went off to use it. I might have been able to see something and stop all this from happening!"

At their lowest point, the two ran to each other and huddled together for comfort.

Cecile picked up the now empty Bouquet that Romain had put down. Suddenly, Lord Mathieu burst in from stage left in a panic.

"Romain! Are you alright! Something terrible is happening outside! I heard an explosion, and the palace at the top of the tower..."

"Magicist Cecile... Romain?", he said as he saw the two. "I see you two are busy, but this is quite important! "

The audience let out a much needed chuckle to ease the tension of the moment.

"No, Lord Matheiu, what is it?", said Romain as Cecile began to inspect the Bouquet further.

"The city is in a panic! Vines are sprouting everywhere and some...thing has taken the palace at the top of the Tower! The Empress herself could be in grave danger!"

"I might have guessed.", said Romain. "I`ll help in any way I c.."

"Romain, WAIT!", shouted Cecile. "There is a way... There has to be! We can fix this, but I need you, both of you."

The two men looked at each other, and then back at Cecile. They then both knelt in subservience.

"Rise, Soldiers.", she said in urgency. "No one here is above anyone else. If we are going to save Eifelle, all three of us need to act!"

The stage lights began to dim as the final scenes of the play were quickly set up by stagehands. " _The magicists' effect spells have been pretty amazing so far. I wonder how much they've updated the final battle scene since I was a kid? Though...the best part is after."_ Thoroughly engrossed in the moment, Mona sat with bated breath as the epic showdown on stage was about to begin.

…

"Yeah, I definitely missed _Magicist Cecile_." , said Plague Knight to himself, snapping his fingers in disappointment. "Aw... I always liked that one when the bards played it. Hee Hee!" The alchemist stood huddled over a small suitcase filled with various equipment such as spare powders, casings and fuses, hurriedly searching for the item he would be in need of soon.

The room was dark and dank, with wooden walls and the only illumination coming from the bright city lights outside the windowsill. Because this was the attic supply room of the theater, all kinds of old props from various shows past were stored here, waiting to be reused or repurposed for any other shows or events that might take place.

" _I missed that one, but I`ll be ready for the most important one."_

From the case, Plague Knight pulled out a small device with an alchemical circle on one side, and intricate concentric circles woven out of metal on the other. Gently and carefully, he began to place it on the floor in the corner of the room, closest to where the stage was as he possibly could.

Stopping short of fully charging the device, Plague Knight placed two more on it. The first, which resembled a small, ornate clock, was a device designed to delay the final charge of mana going into the circle. Set for 10 minutes, Plague Knight placed just enough of his mana in the device to finish the circle once the timer ran out.

The second one was different.

" _I don't...I can't..."_

Plague Knight started breathing quickly and heavily, the pain from his earlier wound making him wince with each breath. His entire body, save for his hand, which was holding something far too important to lose, trembled. He ignored it as he broke out in a cold sweat, and looked over a small black box that was quite literally one of four that existed in the world. Three of which were with Plague Knight and Mona right now. Two were absolutely required for the mission. One was in his hand.

" _I won't need it. This is my only chance. It's the least I can do. I can keep this one promise. Even if everything else blows up in my face, I can do this. I can do this."_

Plague Knight placed the black box on the alchemical circle, next to the timer. It absorbed a small drop of his mana.

" _The Crow put each stone in, one by one, until the water of life reached its beak,"_

The sound of an opening windows pierced Plague Knight's thoughts, as there was only one person it could be. It seemed he was getting careless.

He turned and saw an alarmingly familiar figure in front of him, a bright mana blade barely being held together under badly broken armor, flickering in rage.

" _and was then chased to the Wound in the World by the other animals out of jealousy, never to be seen again. Heh."_

"Plague Knight.", said a broken man, filled with rage. "I'll remember that."

The sword cam crashing down as Plague Knight leapt out of the way, wincing from his earlier confrontation.

"My my, It seems someone dosen`t know how to stay down. Hee Hee Hee!"

Randolph's right shoulder was dislocated, his arm limply hanging from his shoulder. There would be no blade coming from there. His right leg was also bleeding.

"How... How did you even get up here?", wondered Plague Knight as Randolph limped towards him as fast as he could, which was surprisingly quick given the circumstances. He slashed again, and Plague Knight dodged easily, although there wasn`t much room in the attic.

"Seriously, you're not in any..."

"Don't... don't you pity me!", screamed Randolph as he charged haphazardly towards him, the large and visible bird-shaped marking on his forehead making Plague Knight laugh under his mask despite his desperation.

"No, I really don't think you can fight. Seriously."

Randolph charged forward again, tripping over his own wounded leg, his sword sticking into the floor. "Ah, when I beat you... a bloody... freaking... errant... I'll be known throughout the kingdom. Against someone so weak and small... and still an errant... it'll be too easy..."

Now it was just getting sad.

Randolph turned off his blade and crawled towards Plague Knight.

" _He must have spent whatever energy he had left just getting here. What an idiot."_

Plague Knight slowly walked around the room as Randolph struggled to change direction to keep up.

"I.. can at least.. destroy that thing you were so interested in... heh.. I`ll be.. a... legend..."

Plague Knight's face turned pale.

"No."

With a grim tone colder than a Magicist's frost, Plague Knight gathered his mana into a large flask from within the case, and activated the alchemical circle on it to dramatically increase its volatility. With a burst to gain height and speed, he threw the flask directly at Randolph, making a spectacular explosion in the shape of the symbol of addition as the roar of the audience's applause could be heard from the theater below.

"You will be nothing."

Plague Knight watched as Randolph's body flew out the open window he entered from, and waited for the inevitable crash and crack as his body would hit the building on the opposite side, followed by the alleyway below.

However, no such sound was heard.

Curiously, Plague Knight looked out the window to see three Gulper Mages floating in the air, holding the man's body mere inches from the building across the alley. As he sighed half in annoyance, and half in relief, a fourth Gulper Mage rose from directly beneath the windowsill, making him take a step back in surprise.

"A _LIVE."_ , gurgled out the new Gulper Mage. Plague Knight wasn`t sure, but he saw a hint of exasperation in their eyes and voice. Silently, it joined the others, and they floated off into the night. Plague Knight tried his best to avoid thinking about what the Trovers would do to the man.

" _The Trovers... they're also our bosses now for the time being. I guess they always were, in a way. Heh."_

No one would deal directly with Alchemists. The amount of gold they could hold or be at their disposal was essentially infinite. The Kingdom had long ago declared that gold entirely worthless, and anyone dealing in alchemical gold be guilty of collusion with an Alchemist, a crime with severity nearly equalling that of practising Alchemy itself. Barter was the name of the game for survival, and the Trovers never throw away a contact. They'd hold an account for them which they used to deal with the greater world, but would never accept a gold deposit.

Clearing his mind, he went back over to the device he had set minutes earlier. To his relief, it was completely unharmed. The long night was almost over, and Plague Knight leapt backwards, relaxing in a pile of backdrops and old costumes. A painting of the ocean hung up on the wall, overlooking a frozen shipwreck.

He'd have to get back soon.

* * *

"Corporal Romain."

The actor walked towards the Empress, dressed in her beautiful traditional robes onstage. He knelt in front of her. _"According to when the play was written, that's supposed to be Empress Antoinette IX."_ From what Mona recalled from her studies, she was responsible for stabilizing the Empire's economy and raising the standard of living for the commoners. Mona took some comfort in the fact that she was the kind of ruler that deserved to have a story portray them in a positive light, raising the protagonists' standing in the minds of the original audience even further. Of course, that would be lost on any contemporary audience, let alone one of a foreign country.

"Magicist Cecile."

The actress walked forward and knelt all the same.

"From the bottom of my heart, The Empire thanks you for your brilliant service in saving us from being thrust back into the darkness long ago. We as well thank you for saving this life, and that of the royal family. There is no gift we can bestow upon you that would equal your service to our people. Still, we ask of you, our heroes, what do your hearts desire?"

The two turned and looked in each other's eyes, holding hands.

"Besides the obvious, may we add!", added the Empress in jest. The audience let loose a warm laugh.

"We desire to help everyone, everyone in the Empire!", said Cecile.

" _Heh, perfect heroes, these ones are. It's a good thing they're so sweet together or else it would be even cornier.",_ thought Mona to herself.

"Very well!", said the Empress. "In order to further his goal, We hereby dub Corporal Romain as Imperial Chevalier, First Class! May his quick thinking and noble heart serve our Empire well into the future!"

The Empress tapped her sceptre on his shoulder, as he rose to audience applause.

"In order to advance our magic to benefit all the people of this great empire, We hereby dub Magicist Cecile as Magistrana Cecile! May her wisdom bring our Empire further into the light!"

She did the same to Cecile, and the audience applauded once more.

"Now," she said once more. "I believe it is time for us to address the issue of a proper victory celebration!"

"Here here!", shouted the chorus in the background. Quickly, all the actors save for Cecile and Romain moved off the stage, leaving the spotlight on the loving couple onstage.

"So... I've never been in the company of a Magistrana before... this is quite awkward, actually.", said Romain, nervously.

"Nor I a Chevalier! Why, I believe I once made a flippant proposal to a young boy once, that if I was ever in the company of a Chevalier who was so inclined, I would ask him for a single dance, for I was sure that it was all I would ever get. I never imagined until recently that.."

Romain drew closer to her, cutting her off. "I also recall such a girl. I remember hearing that wish, once, causing me to redouble my resolve to join the Imperial Army and become that very Chevalier."

That was the last line of the play. However, as people all around her began to ready their belongings to leave for the night, Mona sat at rapt attention.

The lights dimmed, and the Orchestra's piano began to play a simple, lovely version of the Overture as Romain and Cecile began to dance together onstage with romantic lighting in the background.

The Mona sitting in the theater at this moment in time was not the Mona that anyone now knew. She was a small girl, ten years old, sitting in one of the back rows of the theater in Pridemoor Village. The little girl whose heart had been enflamed and life had been brightened, even if ever so briefly, by the combination of the lovely song and romantic dance that promised her and every child who desired it in the audience a future with someone they loved. Her eyes and ears saw and heard nothing but the music and the two on stage. It was all she could do to hold in the joy she felt at that moment, as the music slowly slowed down, the lights went dark, and the curtains closed. It was over.

Mona snapped back to reality as the cast started to come onstage for the final curtain call. She wiped away the tears in her eyes and clapped as hard as she could.

" _This is all because of Plague Knight."_ As people began to file out of the theater, Mona grabbed her possessions and had it set in her mind to repay him somehow.

" _I know this was to give me a break, but he works just as hard as I do."_ , she thought as she left. She needed to find some way to thank him. She had to. But she also had to make sure he was still in one piece, and that the guild's relationship with the Trovers was intact.

" _I know he can do this. He wanted to. The only thing my conscience is nagging me about here is whether I should have let him."_

* * *

It was nearly 1AM when Plague Knight snuck back into the hotel room, exhausted after finally tracking down Percival, who had slowly over the course of the night transformed from a nervous wreck to an exhausted gambling addict bitter over the loss of five gold pieces he somehow had the precognitive absolute knowledge that he would have won back in the next round of blackjack.

"Argh! I was so close!", he said, exhausted. "To think, I would be absolutely swimming in gold right now if it wasn`t for that blade-happy bouncer! I was THIS..CLOSE!"

Percival held his hands less than a millimeter apart from each other, as if to show Plague Knight. Of course, he had no way of actually seeing it, since his head was buried in a pillow after leaping face-first onto the bed.

"Percival... please just go to sleep." Plague Knight thought for a second, and turned his head towards Percival, still pacing around the room. "Actually...wait. Promise me you won't say a word of this to Mona... You do know how to lie, right?"

Percival stopped his pacing and looked at Plague Knight as if he had just spoken to him in some kind of Western Imperial dialect. "Of..course?"

Plague Knight sighed and turned himself around, sitting cross-legged on top of the bed. He stared directly at Percival with his baggy, tired eyes. "No. It seems you don't. Here are the basic rules. If I say too many you'll probably give yourself away trying to keep everything straight, and she's also probably coming back any time now. Just start with these for now."

Plague Knight held up his fingers with each spot on his list.

"One. Keep it simple. Veer from the facts of what happened only as much as you need to. This ensures that your story corroborates with third-party observers to the greatest point, and so you yourself have to remember the least amount of information. For example, We went together to Fortune's Port. We separated. You went to do some gambling. We both went home together. All of these things are indisputable."

Percival's curiosity was apparently piqued, as he pulled up a desk chair and turned it towards the bed, sitting at attention.

"Two. Where you do veer from reality, have your story confirm what the other person already thinks about you in some fashion. If there's one tragic flaw everyone shares, it's that we all love having our preconceptions confirmed in some way. Everyone loves to be right without doing any actual work. Even me, Hee hee hee! If the other person asks a leading question or gets suspicious about you, you immediately "admit" to something that they would think to be true without any further thought. For example, if she insinuates you ran into any trouble, feel free to act nervously and read her reactions. If she presses you, "confess" to something innocuous or slight. We already think you're nothing but trouble, so it should be easy. Remember, I'll help you."

"Incredible...", said Percival, his eyes now piercing with focus. "What is the third rule?"

"Hee! Excited about this, I see. Well, I think that's enough for now. There's way more rules than three, but those two should be good for now since I'm going to help you."

Percival ran up to Plague Knight with pleading eyes. "Pleeease! Oh Please, my good sir! I must know! I'll even give you a full three percent of any winnings in my future endeavours!"

Plague Knight's eyes narrowed. "Speaking of which... why did that idiot want to kill you?"

Percival jumped back, wiping the back of his head nervously while looking at the corner of the room. Plague Knight was right in assuming he was a terrible liar. "Well.. um... I suppose lying to you now would be even worse than a joke. Heh heh.. well.. you see.."

A piercing knock was then heard at the door of the hotel room, followed by the sound of it unlocking and opening.

"I'm back!", said Mona. Percival gave a huge sigh of relief, and jumped into his own bed, clothes and all.

"Well, I guess it's time to hit the hay. Good Night, and ta ta till tomorrow!". Sounds of fake snoring could be heard coming from Percival's bed, as Plague Knight got up on his feet. It wasn't too long before he met Mona at the door.

She looked tired, but her face was beaming with joy. If he looked closely, he could see some dried tears on her cheek running through her makeup. He hoped they were tears of happiness.

"Plaguey!", she said with a mix of happiness and weariness. "How was everything? You seem fine, and I can hear ol' 'Sir Percival' _trying to make me think he's asleep!_ " She yelled out the last part, making sure he could hear. Bravely, the horseman continued to snore away.

"Ah! Quite good! Money's in the account!"

Mona gave a genuine smile of relief. "Awesome. I knew you could do it. How did that guy amuse himself all the while?", she began to pace around the room. Plague Knight could tell she was anxious to learn all she could and go straight to bed. He felt much the same.

"Oh? Percival came with me. He had some fun at the gambling tables while I sealed the deal."

Mona froze. "Really..." She turned around stared at Plague Knight sharply. Something was wrong. "How... did he do?"

Plague Knight steeled his nerves. This wasn't just anyone. It was Mona. The one who had practiced with him for years on how to lie so they could survive their childhood as young alchemists. He had no room for error.

"He lost five gold pieces before we left. Was quite bitter about it, actually. I thought he'd do much worse! Hee!"

Mona's serious expression evaporated into an exhausted one. "Wow... that's a relief. Listen, I gotta tell you something about that guy."

Mona knelt down, and looked directly at Plague Knight. "Don't let him near a gambling table again. He might not look it, but that guy's an ace in our pocket. A wizard with anything having to do with numbers, but from what I can tell, pretty much a moron at anything else. He bankrupted an entire casino back in Pridemoor in one night, _legally._ "

Plague Knight's eyes widened. "You can't be serious."

"I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. The Council of Nobles wanted his head for any reason they could find, and they found one. That's the short version, anyway."

"T..Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind." Plague Knight took the opportunity to change the subject. "So, how was the show?"

Mona looked at Plague Knight warmly. "Like we remember it. I really wished you could've seen it too. The final battle with Aximila was crazy this time though. It felt like the entire theater was shaking when she bit it! Those Effects Magicists really know their stuff, apparently."

Plague Knight tugged at his collar a bit nervously. "Yeah, wow! That really sounded like a memorable experience."

Mona yawned, and looked at Plague Knight with tired, happy eyes. "You bet it was. Plaguey... I won't forget that you did this for me."

"You deserved it. What else can I say? Hee hee hee!", he said with nervous laughter.

"Well, in any case... thanks. Let's talk more tomorrow. I'm pretty much spent."

Plague Knight started towards the door back to his and Percival's room. "Yeah... me too."


	7. 3rd Esoteric Reaction

Esoteric Reaction 3: The Crow and the Phantom Sorceress

17 Years before the tower fell

Mona's young mind was flailing. Before her eyes, a challenge appeared that she had not anticipated. Why, oh why, was a Magicist here on an off day? Why did she have to see Mona use Alchemy? Either way, she knew the issue required her full attention. She called Two back instantly, her soul becoming one again.

 _"Ah, okay name, name."_

A fake name. Obvious, right? That's what she needed, and fast. It needed to be something easy to remember and unrelated. Something she could remember to answer to as naturally to her own name.

 _"Then again.. it's not like Mona is a really special name. I'm not known for anything at all. Maybe it'll be better to..."_

"Um... Hello?"

The blonde girl, Maggie stared quizzically at Mona with a patient if confused smile. "I'm really sorry if I startled you, but you've been frozen there for like a few minutes and I'm a little worried. Can I get you some Juice?"

"My name's MONA!", she yelled out in a panic, realizing she had been standing there thinking.

"My name's MAGGIE!", said the other girl, copying her tone. "Hiya!"

She held out her hand once again, still smiling, this time with eyes wide and shaking with excitement. Mona stared down at the outstretched limb and looked at it as if it were a creature from another world. Cautiosly, she grabbed it.

"Uh...hiya?"

That was all it took. Maggie grabbed Mona's hand like a vice and pulled her towrds her, wrapping both arms around her while jumping and yelling.

"Oh Wow, Oh Geez, Oh Man! You're soooooooo amazing Mona, You gotta teach me, What class are you in? I'm in Magistra Jano's class, Can we study together? I really need to learn how to do that, You've gotta tell me your secret, that magic was.."

"AAH!", yelled Mona, breaking free from Maggie's vicelike hug and breathing heavily. This was officially scarier than fighting a mechanical dragon.

"Oh, Ah, sorry!", said Mona nervously as she backed off.

 _"It seems like she thought I was using magic. That's a relief. Unfortunately, it also seems like she thought I was really good. If she realizes I can't cast a single spell then that will just complicate things a lot more. "_

Mona regained her composure. She finally realized what kind of situation she was in, and what she had to do. She was actually ashamed it took her so long to realize it. She shook her head, steeling and calming her nerves, and looked back at the other girl with a confident glare.

"Maggie... I see you noticed my spells, eh? What do you think? I've been practicing really hard. Pretty cool, right?"

Maggie walked back up to Mona more slowly, and titled her head slightly to the side, giving a slight smile. She then looked down forlornly, making Mona wonder if she had somehow insulted her.

"..."

"Huh?", said Mona. Maggie had said something under her breath, but she couldn't hear what it was.

"..."

She was slightly louder this time, but Mona still couldn't hear what Maggie was saying. She was already planning an escape route. Mona could also swear that Maggie was...shaking?

"You..."

"Listen... I'm sorry if..."

"You're...so..."

"I just..."

 **"YOU'RE SO AWESOME!"** Maggie screamed louder than Mona imagined, knocking her backwards into the stands out of shock.

"I mean... WOW! You just come out of nowhere and BOOM! BAM! That thing didn't know what hit it! You were like, flying around all ZOOOM!" Maggie was busy acting out the sound effects and motions while Mona regained her composure.

 _"This girl is absoltuely insane.",_ thought Mona. "Heh, yeah, I guess I kinda, sorta can do some pretty cool things."

"KINDA SORTA!?", screamed Maggie in disbelief. "Ooh you're WAY too modest!" In a blink, Maggie appeared directly in front of Mona, and dropped to her knees.

"Please... Oh please teach me, Phantom Sorceress Mona!", she said with her hands clasped and eyes closed.

"Wha...? Phantom What? As for teaching you..I don't..."

"AH! Do you like it? You appeared out of nowhere and fought through the billowing smoke, like a phantom!" Maggie grabbed the edge of her uniform's cape and draped it over her mouth and the front of her body mysteriously. "And you beat that thing up GOOD! Like a true Sorceress hero from the stories!"

Mona did her best to grin while screaming internally out of panic and the increasingly inscrutable girl in front of her.

"Eh, um.. really?"

"Absolutely!", she yelled back. "So...um.. can you help me?" Her smile seemed to practically take up the entire lower half of her face.

 _"I'd love to...if only to get out of this. But I really don't know anything at all about magic! I suppose I can try though. She might think I helped her just because she sees me as some kind of hero, even if I can't really do anything."_

It was clear that any kind of answer in the negative would pretty much wreck her day, and that she seemed harmless enough anyway. Pulling the haughtiest pose she could, Mona tried her dearest to exude fake confidence.

"You know, Maggie, I'll totally help you! Yeah! It's just... I'm kinda not a student here...exactly."

Maggie's look turned to one of concern. "Huh.. really? But you're so talanted!" She looked at Mona with a mournful expression as they got to the doorway leading into the lower halls of the school.

"Was it... that there weren't enoucgh spots open?"

Maggie's expression and body language had completely changed. The poor girl was trembling, and not out of excitement. She started to grab her own arm to steady it.

"Maggie... are you okay? I'll help.."

"Was it that you applied, but there weren't enough spots.. so you couldn't get in?"

 _"For once, it seems the truth might be useful here._ "

"Maggie.. No, no I never even applied at all! What's wrong?"

"Ah, PHEW! That's great! I mean... It will be great. Will be for sure!"

Instantly, the girl's tension melted away as she reverted back to her exuberant self. She grabbed Mona by the hand and rushed her into the school's lower hall. These hallways were surrounded by intricately carved wooden archways and doors on either side, likely leading to classrooms or supply rooms. Still, Mona couldn't help but marvel at the detail and care taken for a building that wasn't really meant to be looked at.

"Where are we going? What will be great?" said Mona as Maggie's grip on her hand held tight as she rushed through the building.

"We're going to my dorm room! You said you'd help me, right? That's where my books are." The two girls went up several flights of stairs as the sunlight of the early morning began to shine through. The artisinal carvings gave way to more utilitarian and practical looking structures as Mona and Maggie wound their way through the mazelike hallyways. Along the way, Mona started to notice other apprentice magicists in the same light blue robes with a gold trim. They leaned against walls, sat at desks, or walked around, but all of them had their heads buried in different books.

" _It looks like Magicists get to read all the time."_

After what seemed like an hour, the two finally arrived at the Girls' dormitory, located on the far eastern side of the building. (Or at least, that is what Maggie told her. Mona actually had no idea where they were in relation to the rest of Pridemoor Village).

All around her, the hallways were dressed in simplisticly painted walls of an alternating white and light blue coloring, resembling a slightly cloudy sky. Small tables with vases filled with flowers stood between every other door, while a painting of some kind hung between the others. It was quite pretty. Maggie did not stop here, but instead dragged her to an even further set of stairs, leading her upwards. Mona made a mental note of the exit door, just in case.

"My room is really close now. Thanks for coming with me all this way!"

Mona's eyebrow raised. "Your room? Don't dorm students usually have roomates?" At least, that's how it was in all the stories she'd read about people in boarding schools. Perhaps this was one of the many ways reality differed from fiction.

Maggie giggled. "Oh yeah, um, mine isn't like that.", the girl smiled nervously as the two reached the top floor.

She may as well have walked into an entirely different world. The walls glistened white with marble colmuns spaced evenly along them, sashes of alternating blue and yellow hanging between them. From what Mona cold see, the floor's rug was made of some kind of animal fur so soft she felt she was walking on air, even through her shoes. The spaces between the doors to each room were lined with onyx tables holding baskets of baked sweetbreads whose smell permeated throughout the air in a scent that had even Mona's epicurean olfactory system surging with joy.

"This.. These breads! Look at the frosting! It's practically art!"

She couldn't believe her eyes. Crossaints drizzled with tiny streams of chocolate laced in a cross-stritch pattern, still warm and melting it ever so slightly, yet the colored frosting of blue with the slightest hint of yellow was neither melting nor overwhelming the pastry; Fluffly, crispy danishes with fruit and cheese nestled in the cener of their soft brown edges, woven like a shopkeeper's basket, and finally long eclairs crowned with gleaming chocolate with the smallest hint of..

"Mona...are you ok?"

Mona snapped out of her daze of artistic admiration long enough to acknowledge the girl beside her.

"Wha? Oh! Yeah! Maggie, did you cook these? They look better than the ones in the bakery near Pridemoor Keep!"

Maggie tried and failed to prevent herself from giggling as she answered. "Huh? No! These get brought over to our floor from the kitchen every morning. They must have just brought them over. Do you..cook?"

Mona couldn't help but beam with a confident smile. "Yeah, I guess I do. Heh heh! I think it's really fun! Just... don't ask me to clean up afterwards."

Maggie grabbed Mona by the hand once more and dragged her to a door with a bouquet filled with Blue Roses and the sign "7S" hanging from it. Without wasting a second, she yanked Mona through and slammed it shut.

"Oops! You probably wanted some breakfast. Sorry! Just wait a second and I'll bring some in for us!" Maggie left as quickly as she came, leaving Mona as bewildered as ever.

 _"This day's just gotten started and I've apparently earned the trust of a Magicist so much that she left me in her room alone! I can't pass up this chance..."_

Mona's heart was racing. She had no idea how she did it, but if she played her cards right, she could use this girl to learn everything she could about the magicists. She had to if she wanted to..

 _"Ah! Gotta focus. Let's see what I can see here."_

Mona ran to look around as quickly as she could. The room itself was as beautiful as the hallway, though it was immediately obvious what belonged to the guild and what belonged to the magicist. The bed had a light blue frame, but was covered with stuffed dragons and griffins, with the slightest bits of intricately woven bedsheets poking out from underneath the suffocating fluff.

 _"Moving on..."_

The desk by the window was made of wood so polished and refined, Mona at first throught it was stained glass. It sat with piles of textbooks on either side, many of them with titles such as _"The Practical applications of Internal Mana diffusion, Volume 1, Healing Magic and other Advanced Spellcraft,_ and the open volume, _Magic for Beginners, An Introduction."_

 _"Someone here might be putting the cart before the horse.",_ Thought Mona. She had no idea how she would pretend to help the magicist, but she realized that if she was in trouble so much as to ask a complete stranger and leave them alone in her room, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. She made a note to thumb through the books later if she was permitted.

Casting her gaze elsewhere, she found a crudely drawn target attached to a polished metallic slab, suspended from the celing by ropes. The target and slab themselves were quite clean, but the wall around and behind it was filled with burn marks of all shapes and sizes. Next to one particular burn mark was a tall wardrobe, its doors flung open to reveal several copies of the uniform that the girl was wearing, as well as one with darker hues and more well-made fabric.

Curious, Mona took a closer look. It was actually a very good looking dress in her eyes. If it wasn't associated with magic, she would have wanted to try it on as long as she could still wear a hood somehow. There was a pattern of golden threads crossing back and forth along the sides of the dress and the cape in the back, complementing the lighter and darker blues of the front in a way that made Mona almost smile. She moved it to examine it closer, and something dark blue and shiny floated downwards from the folds of the dress.

 _"A Hair Ribbon..."_ Mona froze as the small piece of cloth fell into her hand and warmed it. Her mind raced as thoughts she didn't know she even had filled her mind to the point of bursting.

" _What the.. what is this?! Help!"_ Mona reached out as her head felt like it had been hit with a hammer, backing off and stumbling around the room.

 _" **I'm so sorry."**_

 _"Who said that!? Help!"_ Mona stumbled around the room as she vaguely heard the sound of a door opening. Now would probably be the worst possible time for that to happen.

 _ **"Just get away from here, please!"**_ The thoughts were now cutting into her skin. She couldn't take it any more, she needed someone, anyone...Two!

"Help me please! From the one comes..."

"Mona! I brought you some Muffins!"

"AAAAAH!"

Mona turned in a flash, the last thing appearing before her eyes before she blacked out being a giant target.

"Are you ready?" A woman's voice, calm but warm, with a hint of youthful spark, rang out in the darkness.

Mona had no idea what was going on. All she could see and feel was darkness.

"Everything is set. Parameters for the fourth and fifth tower on the peninsula are giving us a spot of trouble, but we've managed to belay suspicion onto spies from the southern kingdom. Out of all the ones scouted, we've decided to use those two. The tower in the north is holding steady." A man's voice rang out this time, older with a hint of gruffness almost masked by scholarly pomp.

"Good! I guess you've learned more from me than just the basics of basics I see! Hee Hee hee hah!", The woman giggled confidently, the seriousness of her tone somehow unnaffected.

Mona's vision was starting to come to light. Shapes of greens, browns, blues, and blacks were slowly forming out of the darkness. Her mind was in no less of a panic, however, as she foudn she could not move a single limb, or even see her hands in front of her face.

"Milady, I owe you much more than that. I could never have completed the _Caput Mortuum_ sigil without your input, much less the..."

"And Iiiii'm going to have to cut you off there. No titles or honors for me, Scruffs. Remember what I told you. It's the only reason you might not succeed."

 _Who are these people? Why can't I move?_

Mona's vision became clearer once she was able to finally get a coherent thought. She could now see opjects and people around her, but as if she was looking at them through clear-running water. The man called Scruffs was not as old as she had first thought; he merely sounded like he was. He had a sharp beard, but it was quite black and neatly trimmed without a single gray hair. Upon his nose was a pair of small glasses that seemed to pinch it, causing Mona to wonder if it affected his breathing. He wore brown, hooded oversized robes with equally oversized gloves attaching to a mechanical apparatus on his arms, with tubes extending along the lengths of each arm into the palm of each hand.

The land around them was barren and nearly lifeless save for small weeds popping out of the cracked soil. Her vision beyond a few meters was still blurry, but all she could make out besides the clear day's sky was a green blob in the distance, likely a forested mountain.

 _Is that...are they... Argh! Why can't I move!?_

At that moment, an ethereal hand appeared in front of Mona's face, extending from where her body should be. But it was not her hand, nor her body.

 _What!?_

Mona tried to scream, but realized it was pointless. She needed to figure out what was going on, and if she was even currently alive.

 _The woman talking... am I.. inside her?_

"Scruffs" walked towards "Mona" with concern and dissapointment in his eyes. "Mil... Pro.. " His mouth opened, but words refused to come out.

"Scruffs... I'm not her. You never knew her. We both know this. ", the woman's voice rang out. The man's eyes sharpened. His hands, shaking, looking as if they were fighting against his own will not to reach up and grab "Mona's".

"You are the survivor of Scoyari. One of the original four. You taught me ev..."

The ghostly hand that came from Mona's perspective reached out to the man, but passed through his, with Mona's own heart feeling an emotion that was not hers. The eyes of the man did not waver.

"No one survived Scoyari, Scruffs!", the woman's voice gave a slight tremble. Mona felt far more uncomfortable than she had just a moment before.

 _Is this me? Am I a ghost? But I have no idea who these people are! I'm not even controlling what's going on! What...?_

The hand that had just passed through the man's was gripping itself tight as a vice at her side. "I'm not the one whose experience and memories I've shared with you. This personality you like to be around? It's not mine because I don't HAVE ONE. Those words that you find so captivating? They're not mine because I do not SPEAK FOR MYSELF. I'm just her last gift. I'm not a per.."

The man's eyes then gave a stare so cold that the person Mona was inside, as well as she herelf, stopped dead.

"You can be."

"Impossible. I taught you better than that.", the woman said coldly. Mona felt as if her heart had been pierced.

The man started to walk away, going in a long oval shaped path around the area Mona could now see filled with various toold and flasks she found all too familiar. " _Alchemists! They're Alchemists! But why am I here and who..."_

Mona's thoughts were interrupted by Scruffs, who began to speak as if he was reading from a text, yet none was in his hand.

"Three things if you three hours attend  
Are chained together in the End.  
Maria the Light of dew, an Art has got  
In three hours to tie three Knots.  
Pluto's daughter, it is she  
Who bindeth Love's confederacy  
Joined with three seeds she does aspire  
To be exalted in the Fire. "

 _Those, those are Alchemical terms.. I think.. at least! Wow!_

The terror of Mona's situation was briefly replaced by scientific curiosity as her mind buzzed with the possibilities of what Scruffs was saying.

 _Three, Three, Three, let's see. They mentioned three towers specifically before... does that have to do with this or is it something else. What exactly is being created here? A fusion.. of a bunch of different things in three groups of three? I..._

 _"_ Hee...hee.. hah hah HAH!", the woman burst out laughing, Mona herself still not quite getting used to feeling emotions that were not her own inside her head, as she tried to figure out why she felt so amused by the man's cryptic words. "Scruffs, oh man.. Did you tell that one to Theosebeia? She'd get a kick out of it I bet. Thaaaaat's a good one! Still, a fun thought experiment. If something like that were to exist, this, I dunno.. I gues I'd call it a _Serum Supernus_ , the Alchemical power behind such a thing would be just...I wouldn't want to even hypothesize something so ludicrous! To stabilize that many at once... seriously, Scruffs, who do you think we are? Raw, unfocused essence, unlike yours truly, don't last long enough for such a process. That dosen't even get into the matter of obtaining them! But still, how would I build the equiment to even perform such a feat! Now THAT's a challenge worthy of Her. Ha Ha Hee!"

The woman laughed some more, nearly coughing from her apparently nonexistant lungs out of exhaustion, while the man's gaze was unmoving, his mouth now turned downward.

"I'm serious, Master. We'll discuss it later. Theosebeia is also with the others, awaiting my signal. You know it's just us here."

Mona suddenly felt a wave of exasperation. She was quite sure that the woman was rolling her eyes, if she had any physical ones.

"There you go again, Scruffs! I told you already. Please, if you have to call me something, just call me Essence! That's what I basically am, anyway, heh."

 _Essence? That's her name? Then who does Scruffs think she is? And.. why am I here?. Still... other Alchemists besides me and Plague? I've never seen any before, and these two look like they know their stuff. This is probably my best chance to learn Alchemy from a Master!_

Mona's excited thoughts cleared her vision even further. The green mountain in the distance was now clearly not a mountain. It was far too thin, and the bottom half of it was black, the green segment at the top glowing brightly. If she squinted, she could see a mass at the bottom... moving,

"If that is what you wish.", said Scruffs, dissapointedly. "I know you are far more than that, though. At the very least, to me, if that matters for anything at all."

Mona felt Essence's nonexistant heart skip a beat, then drop down into the pit of her stomach. She made a mental note to try to consider the feelings of others when speaking from now on.

"Scruffs!"

"Forgive me, I spoke out of turn." The man gave a slight smile, and then turned again to look behind him. "Well, would you look at that.", he said matter-of-factly. "I do believe we have company. Your thoughts, M... Essence?"

Mona suddenly felt her heart race and her senses sharpen as the ground seemed to fall out below her in an instant. Scruffs was now a small figure on the ground as it seems Essence had leapt several stories in the air. Now fast above the ground, Essence's vision seemed to force her own into place, making clear the moving mass at the base of the tower far away was in fact an army of warrious clad in armors of various hues, the look of it completely alien.

The faces of the solders were completely masked by helmets with a backwards-facing crest and plated sections extending behind the neck. This motif of plates carried throughout their armor, appearing to be rather heavy, yet not hindering the movements of the warriors with their unusually curved swords Mona had never seen before. As she looked closer, she saw that they were not peopel at all, as instead of feet they bore masses of mottled mud that sloshed and splahed along rapidly as they moved. As one, they were marching, (more pantomime of humanity rather than true footfalls) forward away from the tower she now saw clearly, emanating a bright green beam of light from its highest point. Suddenly, she was rushed down to the ground as quickly as she was brought up, once again facing the man Essence called "Scruffs".

"Hee! The Enchantress apparently seeks to mock you, Scruffs. One Thousand."

 _A Thousand!? Were there that many people even in Pridemoor Keep? Enchantresses... they were long gone, for at least a thousand years.. but then I am I seeing... I can't be sure..._

Mona's thoughts turned to panic. They had to get out of there immediately. She had no idea what state of being she was currently in, but she didn't want to know what would happen to her if those soldiers got to her... or Essence, in this state.

"Bwa! Bwahaaha!", yelled out Scruffs, barely containing his laughter as he unfurled the hooded robes he wore, revealing lightwieght armor emblazoned with the symbol of a black crow about to ensnare its prey.

"My word! She still thinks of us as spellscribes in the darkness. I do indeed feel quite insulted.", said Scruffs with an excited smile.

"And after all our hard work at the last tower, too. Well, I suppose reputations must be earned. Scruffs, if you so please?", said Essence, excitement dripping from every word.

"It would be my pleasure." The man turned around, and leapt into the air.

" **From the one comes two.** "

 _The Axiom of Maria! Esoteric Alchemy! Is he going to..._

The man's body seemed to explode with invisble energy as he propelled himself higher into the sky, stepping on the viscosity of the air currents as if they were stone platforms guiding him to his destination.

 **"From the two comes three."**

Mona's mind ran wild with exciement. She begged and prayed to whatever higher power there was that this was not out of her imagination. Whoever Scruffs was, he was clearly an Alchemist at the peak of his power.

His body now began to glow, outlined with a reddish flame that for a moment outshone the sun. From the palms of his hands, dozens of Alchemical circles of light and fire came forth, sourrounding him in the shape of an outstretched hand. He now rose higher, and stretched his own hands outwards as if he were flying.

 **"And from the three..."**

 _No way. No way. No way. No way. No way. No way. No way. No way. NO WAY._

 **"Comes the One as the Fourth."**

* * *

Plague was sure that Mona must be doing something more exciting than walking through a disgusting sewer tunnel.

"What could be taking her so long?", he wondered out loud. He desperately hoepd that she hadn't been captured, but it would also be unusual for anyone to be out and about this early for the magicist guild. He had been with Gramps across the rooftops many times at this hour, Plague serving as lookout, as he always surveyred the Magicist's Guild with eyes that seemed to boil.

"That was before..."

Plague stopped as he turned another corner, seeing the shadows of people's feet pass above him through the light of a grate at the edge of a street. He didn't want to remember that day. He had to focus on Mona. She had said earlier that she would need to get back to cook for the rude people she lived with, and Plague didn't want her to be held responsible for something that might make her walk with a slight limp for a while again.

 _"I'll destroy all of them!"_ , he had shouted.

 _"Ahh.. Plague! No, it's okay! Really!",_ Mona had exclaimed as she winced. Plague's face grew bright red as the young boy's eyebrows furrowed.

" _It's not okay! They hurt you just because of something like that! You need to get revenge! I'll cook up one of Gramps' potions and.."_

Mona leapt up, wincing in pain, to cover Plague's mouth. " _Plague, Please!"_ , she had said with tears forming in her eyes. " _You can't beat grownups. They can only beat you. I've...tried in the past. A lot of things. It always backfires."_

" _Well, did you have Alchemy back then?",_ Plague said with a snort.

 _"No, I.."_

 _"Well now you do!"_ , Plague said with a wicked smile.

 _"I...it's too scary. I'd rather observe first..."_

Plague remembered grabbing a large Alchemy volume off the shelf and opening it in front of Mona.

" _Of course we observe, that's what Alchemists should always do first! But then we gotta make a plan! That's what Gramps told me! Hee hee hee!"_

 _"Plague..."  
_

 _"Mona, don't you want to study Alchemy with me?"_

He remembered her leaping back, her green cheeks brielfy flashing a shade of red in Plague's small room.

" _Of course I do! There's nothing better than Alchemy! It's the greatest!"_

Plague could tell Mona was getting slighty angry. It was about time.

 _"Me too! Hee hee hee! Mona, without you, I'd barely be able to understand half of these!"_

 _"Well, that's because you weren't really taught to read except little bits and Gibberish. It wasn't fair.."_

 _"That dosen't matter.. it.."_

 _"Yes it does! Plague, whenever I got stuck, you knew what the book was talking about right away. I'm sure you could've.."_

 _"That's only because Gramps read these with me all the time and explained those!"_

 _"But you still understood it!"_

 _"But I."_

Plague remembered the two of them getting closer and closer with each yell, until the two clonked their foreheards together in argument, sending both children falling flat on their bottoms.

 _"Ow..hee hee hee haaa!"_

 _"Ow...Ow.. Heh, hahahaha!"_

After that, Plague couldn't remember Mona's tears after she laid on her back laughing for several minutes. Even Plague couldn't remember a time he had laughed that hard. Mona had delved into the books more furiously than ever, smiling as she read along with him.

"Every day after that...", Plague reminisced aloud in the empty sewer. Almsot every day after that they had spent together, Mona had brought him a piece of food that she had prepared earlier in the day.

 _"So you don't have to steal as much, and so we have more time for Science!"_ , she had told him as she rubbed the wound on the side of her neck.

It was often nothing more than a simple sandwich or fluffy pastry, but to Plague, it was something he looked forward to constantly. Not because of the taste, although that was a large part of it, but because when Mona saw him eat what she cooked, she smiled. And that was something it took quite a lot to do. Many people had cursed, screamed, yelled, and even laughed (unintentionally) because of Plague, but Mona was the only one who had ever smiled with him.

Plague bounded, leapt, and even burst back to the main room of the vast underground cavern, seeing Mona's supplies laid out, along with some books on alchemy as well as some parchment, still wet with ink.

"She was taking notes? Already?" Plague thought to himself. The book was titled in Gibberish, which Plague recalled Mona being completely dumbfounded at his ability to read even better than Common Pridemoor. It took quite a bit of "translation" from him for her to read many of the tomes in his hideaway.

 _"I guess I have Gramps to thank for that! Gramps..."_

Translated, it read, _Issues in Potion-Making, a First Study._ It made sense why she had picked it up to start with. She always asked Plague for more information on how his potions were made, even though he had at first just memorized what Gramps had showed him and paid little attention to measures or even the names of the ingredients.

The book began rather dryly, restating the importance of Alchemical study and repeatability of results, something Gramps had drilled into him long ago. Turning to Mona's notes, he read,

" _It says Issues in Potion-Making, but it's barely even about making potions? More about the history of potion making... who names these things?_

 _Nothing on those Magicists I can see..."_

She had written a little more, a basic synopsis of what she had surmised to be the contents of the first few chapters based on a quick glance, but Plague could easily see it was to make the absorbtion of the information in the book go much faster.

"Ahh.. I would have just read the book and remembered the important parts for what I needed.. how did she even get the idea to do this!?", Plague said out of desperation, putting the notepage back inside the text, slamming it a bit too hard against the desk and dislodging soemthing from the top of the bookcase.

*SLAM!*

A Book fell to the ground, one with no title, only the symbol of the skull of a Crow. Its pages were frayed, as if it had either been dropped in water or read many, many times. Plague felt in his hand that the cover was hard and heavy, with large, leathery scales everywhere except the symbol.

 _"Is this a notebook? There's no title."_

He lifted the book back onto the surface of the desk to open it, and crakced open the cover. It made an odd sound, almost metallic in nature, as Plague saw the first page was blank.

As was the second.

And the third.

And so on as Plague began to furiously turn pages searching for something, anything at all.

"This book has clearly been used, but all the pages are blank? There's something I have to be missing..."

At that moment, a loud crash from above nearly made Plague jump out of his rags. Bottles and books alike shook slightly, which was impressive given how far down he was.

"Look what you've done, you idiot!", shouted a voice from far above.

"I'm so sorry, the gyroscopes were..", said another, far more childish one.

 _"What is going on up there!?"_ , said Plague Knight as he hurried to the ladder. He hoped desperately that gramps' hideout hadn't been discovered. Not now when he and Mona had only just begun to explore it.

When he arrived at the surface, he quickly closed the trapdoor and saw that a bit of the ceiling was leaking water.

" _What! But to do that..."_ Something major had to be going on outside for something to affect the city sewage system from the surface. Plague leapt and leapt again, barely containing the urge to use his burst until he scampered through the busy tavern and up the path to the surface of the large building in the village that covered the area.

When he arrived, all he could see was a crowd of people and a cloud of billowing smoke as a cluster of guards materialized, pushing everyone back into the building as yet anothe blast sounded, this one far more serious-sounding.

"Back Away! Back Away!", said one guard Plague could see as he approached closer, ducking through the legs of people as they tried to simultaneously get a good look at what was going on.

"That thing might explode at any second! Everyone, clear out now!", another guard shouted.

Plague managed to squeeze around the crowd and burst up to the edge of the roof of the building. The billowing smoke cloud was spreading high into the air, making it difficult to see, but a mass of silver metal and red cushioning with wheels unlike any he had ever seen before could barely be made out at the source.

He wondered what kind of device it was, and how exactly it had caused so much damage, until he spotted something even more unusual. Within the wreckage, the machine's gears clanking and clunking, struggling to move as they were intended, was a leather glove, even smaller than his own hands, with straps and fastners made of finely crafted metal.

 _"Is that..Silver? Hee hee hee! Nobody ever expects counterfeit silver! Outta my way!",_ Thought Plague Knight as he bounded forward into the smoke, ignoring the shouting of the guards, thinking only of the amount of food he could trade for.

Dodging springs and jets of steam, he yanked hard on the glove, feeling something solid within. Perhaps this time he could bring good food to Mona for once.

" _Ahh! I really need this! Come on, you stupid thing!"_

Struggling with all his might, he pulled and pulled and pulled until the glove, and all that was attached to it, came loose.

"What.", said Plague flatly, the machine clanking and billowing all around him. Before him was a small boy, even smaller than himself, with a slight pudge to his stomach and covered in extremely well-made protective gear from head to toe. He could barely tell what he was if it were not for the open faceplate.

" _I Hope no one sees this! Hee hee!"_

Hurriedly, he struggled to pull the gloves off of the boy, but he kept dragging his limp and unconscious body further and further to the side of the street.

"Come on, Come on!", he shouted. He exited the cloud of white smoke as the body in front of him scraped across the ground. Finally, he decided he had had enough, and took the boy's two arms around a lamppost. He had decided he would pry the gloves off even if the arms came with them.

Or at least, that is what he planned, until he heard the crowd behind the machine yelling as the strange contraption in front of him had just decided to completely break down and explode in all directions.

The while smoke that formerly was merely rising into the sky suddenly rushed out along ground level, finally clearing to reveal a hot, steam-burned pile of metal, still sizzling from the steam's searing temperatures.

"Young Master! Are you alright? Please be alright! Young Master!", a voice shouted out of nowhere. Plague jumped, quickly looking for an avenue of escape. However, as the smoke cleared, he found him and the young boy surrrounded by a sea of Red and Silver Uniforms. This...was not how he had expected his day to go.

 _"The Blacksmith's Guild? What are they.."_

Suddenly, a weak voice cried out, barely more than a squeak.

"I'm..okay..he...saved me.."

Plague turned his head slowly and saw that the young boy he had tried to steal from just moments ago was in fact conscious, if just barely, and speaking.

A single voice yelled out from the crowd as a tall, broad-shouldered man pushed through the crowd. His unifrom had several badges, some of which stood out by virtue of their clashing green and gold.

"Stannum! My boy! Gods, are you alright?! Did this urchin..save you?"

His eyes, beady and lost in a fluff of thick eyebrows and full, graying beard, stared at Plague quizically.

"Father... yeah..he..did. I'm just a bit.. tired.."

The man immediately grabbed the small boy by the scuff of his collar yanking him up to his eye level.

"You Idiot."

The man spoke in a tone of disdain and annoyance, the boy's body struggling to get leverage on his arm so he could get enough wind down his throat to speak properly.

"Father..I.."

"You let a filthy urchin touch you. You destroyed guild property. You allowed the Argen name to become associated with the one thing it absoltuely, postively, cannot. Failure. You don't get to speak."

All the while, the man spoke barely above a boiling whisper, his voice smooth as any noble, with a hint of roughness poking above the water, enough to make the flow of his speech unnerving to the ear.

"I..I'm.."

"Don't. You. Dare."

The boy's voice was barely more than a squeak, and for the first time, Plague could see sweatstains forming along the thick leather of his protective suit.

The man put the boy down on his feet, while he immesiately stumbled and sank to his knees, shaking. In a brief pang of empathy, Plague winced when he saw the man he hoped was not the boy's true father give him a swift kick, to which he immediately straghtened up, standing still as a board.

All the while, the line of guildsmen standing behind the man blocking the crowd's view.

"As for you...you deserve compensation." The man's gaze pierced Plague's eyes, but he stood unflinching. "Jameson!", the man yelled, and one of the guildsmen immedaitely stepped forward.

"Give this boy here something, would you?"

Jameson reached into his pocket, producing a small bag, carefully wrapped and emblazoned with the insignias of both the Blacksmith's Guild and the Machinist Guild. He tossed it to Plague, careful not to get too close.

The man then bent down carefully, and looked Plague in the eye once more. "Our business is ended. I never expect to see you in my sight again. If you ever lay a hand on a member of the Argen family again, well, I wouldn't want to be you in that situation. Do I make myself clear, rat?"

Plague took a breath, and swallowed, biting his tongue to avoid spilling out what was bubbling within his stomach.

"Yes sir.", he said, as meekyl as he could muster. "Crystal Clear."

The man turned back, gripping Stannum's shoulder like a vice. The guildsmen behind him immedaitely parted, allowing him to turn and face the crowd.

"The Guild is here! All is present and accounted for! All damages can be billed to the Machinist Guild. Approach any of my representatives for compensation immediately. That is all. We apologize for this disruption in your routine."

Stannum and his father left with several of the guildsmen, while several stayed behind to asses and clear the damaged machine. The crowd, now disinterested, was beginning to disperse, as Plague could barely hold it in anymore.

In a flash, the young Alchemist darted into an alleyway, and took a deep breath.

"Hee."

"Hee Hee."

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee Haa haa haa hahaahahahahaha!"

Plague could no longer contain his laughter.

 _"Oh..Clear..Hahaha! Absoltuely Clear!"_ The gearworks of Plague's mind were spinning, faster and faster. He loved this feeling. The feeling of inspiration and ideas springing forth.

"This is going to be fun!"

* * *

Time had come to a standstill as Scruffs had spoken the final and most enigmatic words of the Axiom. Mona found herself caught in a wave of suspense she had not before thought possible.

 _What's going on? Is my time here done or whatever? I..._

 _ **Alchemist. Do you understand?**_

 _Ahh! Who said that!? Is it you?_ , Mona would have leapt back in fear if she currently occupied a physical form, as she felt a somewhat familair voice address her directly.

 _Essence?_

 ** _AHH YES! Finally someone calls me by my name!_** The voice seemed to be both happy and relieved, putting Mona slightly at ease.

 _ **I like you already. Listen, I know what you were trying to do. Let me tell you, you're going about this in a really risky way. You're lucky I found you floundering about the Aether or else we could be in a whole big bugaboo.**_

Mona barely supressed a giggle as she listened. Whoever Essence was, she seemed to be relatively pleased with Mona, something few people who knew her were.

 _ **Hey! It looks like I got a good crowd today. People usually don't laugh that easily at my jokes, hee hee. Ahem... anyway, you took a lot of big risks, but you clearly came for something. Everybody who gets here does. So what is it?**_

 _Uhhh.. I.. kind of..._

Mona stopped. She clearly had done something that was supposed to be impressive. If she told Essence the truth she would probably just send her on her way and maybe even give her a scolding. However, if she gave a poor lie, Essence would likely think even less of her. She decided to split the difference and do what she did best, lie and tell the truth at the same time.

 _I want to learn more about Esoteric Alchemy. I'm... not in a position to find more texts. That Alchemist, he looked really confident, and I..._

 _ **Oooh, I see. Well then! A student after my own heart! (Literally, hee hee hee). Scruffs is the best o'da best if you wanna see it in action. I'm more into the Exo side, ya know, potion bombs and all, but The Axiom was designed to increase Logarithmically in understanding at each level. You'll see what I mean with Scruffs here. I can't really help you get to where he's at, it's something you gotta do for yourself. If I told you any more it would be absoltuely EsoTERRIBLE! Hee hee! You could say Maria was doing something quite PROPHETable for all Alchemists when she discovered it! Hee hee haa!**_

Mona said absolutely nothing.

 _ **Ah well. Guess they can't all be winners. You wanna see Scruffs, I'll let it go for you. Here. Watch a master in action.**_

A bright flash appeared before Mona's eyes as she struggled to keep herself focused on the current situation. What she was about to see was far too valuable an experience to miss any details.

When her vision had finally cleared, Mona had found that the sky had exploded.

On its blooded corpse stood hundreds upon thousands of Alchemical circles, raining down spherical containers of powders and liquids of all shapes, sizes, and grades.

The army had dissapeared.

In is place stood a disorganized mass of molten warriors, their swords and bows struggling to hold their shape amind the chaos as the structural intergrity of the contstructed army simply could not hold against the incredible onslaught. Some fused together into horrific amalgamations that sauntered forward still, others barely hanigng on as they were reduced to particles beyond their lower limit of form, never able to form the invincible liquid soldiers that had so easily brought the land to its knees when the Wound in the World was still fresh so long before.

The sky returned.

The remants of the army charged forwards, some more teal, some more magenta, some patchwork quits of both, sectiosn of sword and bow melded together in their hands. What was once a Thousand was now a few dozen.

 _This..this is what an Alchemist can do?_

The man called Scruffs stood upon a great chemical vat that had appeared beneath him in the air. Leaping off with exacting prescision, he vaulted to the ground in the mindst of the disheveled soldeirs now beginning to line up in front of him, the Vat crashing to the ground, its smoke covering the man in shadow, leaving only the illumination of his glasses.

"Enchantress Dhisana. I do believe I handed in my resignation quite a while ago.",

Out of Nothingness, a woman in a horned headdress cloaked in black and silver appeared above and behind the army, with a confident smile.

"I gave you everything, and this is how you repay me?", she gestured to the ruined land around her, and the army below, looking as if she was holding back a laugh. He said nothing in return.

"My my, Court Alchemist. You seem to be most ungrateful. In the courts of every other of my kin, their alchemists have shown the utmost loyalty to the keepers of the Ancient Towers and rightful rulers of the land. Is there any particular reason you find me deserving of this... temper tantrum?"

With a gesture of her hand, a ball of shining darkness shot forth and stood in front of her and the Liquid Army, extending their shadows. From these, identical soldiers came forth, slowly filling the ranks of what he had destroyed.

"You speak of betrayl? Yet you are the one who has betrayed all under your thumb with the promise of magic for the good of all. I have no use for you at this point in time. Now if you will excuse me..." Scruffs began to turn and walk away.

Dhisana's expression turned from complacency to dissapointment and disgust. Her nostrils flared and her eyebrows furrowed deeply. " _You_ have no use for _me?!_ It seems someone needs to be reminded of their place!" The Enchantress's hands erupted with fire as she hovered above the battlefield, her regenerating army ready to strike once again.

"My thoughts exactly.", said Scruffs, just barely under his breath, with a slight smile just barely peeking from the corners of his mouth.

 _ **Thaaaat's all ya get, ya nosy!**_

The voice said jokingly, as time froze once more.

 _ **Anything else? I don't want the timeline to get all bugabooed by this little tete-a-tete, as if I'll remember anyway. You know, Aetherial trans-temporal communication rules and all.**_

 _Yeah! Those Aether rules that everybody knows. Pfft..Seriously, Who dosen't, eh? Losers, that's who._

Mona struggled to think of anything else to ask Essence. Clearly, whoever she was, she was a prodigy on the subject of Alchemy, likely a master, perhaps even close to the level of a Prophitessa, and had somehow felt it was her duty to help Mona. She had so many questions that if she knew she asked, she would likely be found out as just somone who got here by a fluke. The last thing she wanted was someone else who thought less of her.

 _I...I do have one more question. I 'm trying to figure it out, something you said.._

 _ **Shoot.**_

 _It's about what you said.. Logarithmically. So I'm pretty sure it's not about Logs, that would be kind of silly, heh. But Rhythym, perhaps.. not in music, exactly but maybe as in a sequence or pattern of things? Anyway, we learned about math Algorithms in school, so that seems like a more likely connection.. but.._

 _ **Wait...You're not asking me... what Logarithmically means.. are you?**_

 _Well, yeah, if you could tell me it would make it a lot easier, you see... eh, yeah._

 _ **How... old are you, Alchemist?**_

 _Ten. Why?_

Mona felt something in her throat drop into the pit of her stomach.

 _ **And you found me in the Aether.. But then.. Then you're.. but how?!**_

Essence's voice seemed to grow soft and cold, as if she was struggling to swallow water.

 _ **Goodbye... goodbye!**_

Mona's vision flashed in front of her face once more as more questions raced through her mind. She had no idea what Essence had meant, but her mind began to flow with new ideas.

Back in the land of the living, her eyes sprung open as she sprang up from the young Magicist's bed.

"AAAAH!", Mona screamed.

"AAAAH!", Maggie screamed. "Are you okay? I was so worried if you were okay! Are you going to be okay?!", said the young blonde as she bounced around the room in poses Mona could only describe as exaggerated interpretive dances expressing worry and panic.

"Yeah.. I'm...fine."

Mona looked around the room, the nervous girl having already brought in dozens of baskets of pastries. She was even holding one as she held her latest pose, giving a sigh of relief.

"YAY!", she yelled, some croissants leaping out of her basket as she bounced. " It would have been really bad if I invoted such a great magicist up to help me only have her die out of complete randomness..."

"Yeah, heh, I guess that would have been bad.", said Mona as she got out of the extraordinarily comfortable bed, scratching the back of her head.

 _"Though if you knew who I was, you'd probably be rewarded for it."_

Mona looked around once more, seeing the room of a girl who had everything she could ever possibly want.

"So... how can I help you?"

* * *

"Ugh... I hope this won't be too boring.", said Maggie, her face slumped into a pillow.

"Itsh naht dat bahd.",said Mona, sitting at Maggie's desk, head over a schoolbook, all the while stuffing her face with pastry after pastry. Whoever had baked them was an exceptional patissier.

The girl in the rags stood up from the ornate chair, chocolate croissant in her mouth, and took a stance with her left foot forward, her head pointed straight at the hanging target, and right arm raised.

"Feel the mana from within you. Imagine it gathering on the lifeline of your palm, and call upon the passion within you to ignite that energy. Then focus your mind's eye on the target, and ..."

At that moment, a small sphere of flame shot out of Mona's hand, suring forward and creating a singe mark on the formerly clean bullseye of the target.

Maggie immediately sprang up from the bed and leapt over to the target, poking the spot with her finger.

"Ouch!", she yelled, immediately putting it in her mouth as Mona supressed a giggle.

"Ugh.. you really are a great sorceress!", she said, now kneeling on the floor. "Please teach me how to do that consistently!"

"I...I just read the book.", said Mona, dumbfounded. "What part is hard for you?"

It had been nearly a half hour since Mona had awoken from her trance, and Maggie had apologized profusely for anything in her room that may have caused her to pass out. Mona had made up an excuse about staying up too late and getting dizzy, but all the while she made sure to stay as far away from the wardrobe as she possibly could.

In truth, that was only the second time Mona had ever summoned a fire spell, the first being years ago when she was practicing summoning her mana for Alchemical transmutation in a manner suggested by Zosimos's tome, and had thought of a different route to go about doing so, resulting in quite a surprise. The method Maggie's text suggested was far more straightforward, given the desired result, so finding out why the girl could be having trouble with something like this was a clear priority.

"Um... let's see.. the part with the fireball...?" Maggie cocked her head to the side, struggling to think. Mona stared blankly.

"Huh."

"I..I mean.. when you make it go forward. I can't do that.."

Mona stood up, taking a bite of an Eclair.

"So.. you can summon your mana?"

"Yeah, yeah! I can totally do that! I can summon a whole bunch. It's just, when I think about getting it out, I can't concentrate... and... I.."

Maggie didn't continue her sentance, but judging from the marks on the wall around the target, she could guess what she meant.

"Hmmm..." said Mona, swallowing her food. If summoning mana wasn't an issue, she probably had mana to spare. When Mona found that she couldn't perfrom some alchemical formulae, it was because she symbols were simply too large and/or ornate, and she had trouble filling them to their entirety with mana before she tapped herself out. They were a far cry from Transportation Circles, which were only a few lines and took a negligible amount of mana to fill and activate.

"Can you... demonstrate for me?"

Maggie looked at her feet, then to the corner of the room. "Ahh! Um.. okay, but.. get behind something. Or maybe stand in front of the target. I dunno. From past experience that's probably the safest place you can be when I'm trying to cast a spell.", she said with a dsheartened grin.

"Hey! Don't think like that!", said Mona. "Magic is really tied to your mental state. I'll go...over there. Now I need to see you try."

Mona did her best to give an encouraging smile to a member of the group she detested so much, while helping one of them do the thing she despised.

Maggie nodded, and took the stance she had observed Mona take moments ago. She closed her eyes, and her arm began to noticably shake as she grimaced and began to sweat. Suddenly, her arm shook even more, and a bright flash of light shone across the room as a fireball the size of a head of lettuce rocketed out towards one of the room's upper corners.

"Ahh! Oh no, not again!", she yelled.

Mona ducked under the bed, peeking out in curiosity as the ball ricoched all around the room, leaving small scorch marks wherever it went as it slowly fizzled to nothing.

"Well.. that's an issue in spellmaking alright.", said Mona as she started to dust off her rags while getting out from underneath the bed, then realizing there was none, and shrugging in disbelief.

"You see!?", said Maggie, bounding over to Mona once again. "I can't do it!"

"Wooow. Hold a bit. Just wait.", said Mona as she grabbed the despondent girl by the shoulders. "What do you mean you can't. You just did!"

"Yeah, but.."

"Okay, so you need to work on your aim. That's...an entirely separate issue from being able to conjure fire. Who told you otherwise?"

Maggie looked towards her books, wincing slightly.

"The Magistra... she said that if I can't even do something so simple, there's no point in teaching me anything more advanced. I've been trying, but she said I lack 'a foundation'. I still read through all the books though..."

Mona walked over to her texts, looking through the beginning spellbook, skipping around until she found a suitable spell.

"Close your eyes.", said Mona.

"Huh? Okay.." Maggie shut them tightly, even though Mona didn't really intend her to.

"Now open them."

When Maggie did, she saw a page from the text shoved in her face.

"Ah! Huh? What?"

"Read this spell. When you're done reading, close your eyes again."

"But.. I can't see the whole thing.. I don't even know what the spell is for!"

"Its okay! It's nothing even remotely dangerous.", said Mona, forcing a cheeky smile.

Maggie did as she was instructed, and when her eyes shut tightly once again, Mona took the book away.

"Now, I want you to try it."

"Oh.. okay..but.. I.."

"Hey! Who's the Phantom Sorceress here? Do you doubt me?"

Maggie bowed profusely in apology as she shook her head furiously, her braids almost coming undone.

"Then.. go ahead! You can close your eyes if it helps."

Mona saw as the girl did as she said once more, her hands clasped together in front of her stomach. As the young magicist began to whisper softly, small blue wisps each no larger than a firefly began to gather in front of her. Mona watched in awe as they danced about, slowly coming together in the shape of an upside-down letter "J", as a glowing string of green danced over the top of all the wisps, conecting them together in their lighting of the room.

It was quite beautiful.

"Maggie, open your eyes."

Once again the girl did as she was told, and immediately fell backwards, covering her mouth in awe, as tears formed in her eyes.

"No...no way..no way.."

"Yes way!" said Mona. "I knew it. Lucky my first hypothesis was correct."

Maggie's tears began to flow profusely now as she found she could not stop herself from smiling, nomatter how hard she tried.

"It's..it's a bluebell...", she finally remarked, looking at the flower of light she had just created in her room. "I don't get it.. I couldn't even aim a simple fireball! How did you..."

"Key word there being AIM.", interrupted Mona. "I noticed your fireball was a lot bigger than mine. Mana control and gathering was clearly no problem for you. I thought that if I made you try a non-projectile based spell, you'd probably be able to do it unless there was another unaccounted-for variable. Lucky for us, there wasn't."

Maggie managed to tear her eyes away from her work long enough to look at Mona. "You.. you really do deserve this room more than me.", she said.

 _"No I don't. I don't know that much about magic. I just know how to learn. At least, I think I do. And I want to learn Alchemy. Plague and me together."_

"Heh.. what are you talking about?", said Mona, brushing her hair back and turning away. "I didn't do anything. That spell was all you."

Maggie ran up to Mona and grasped her hands, falling to her knees. "All the Magistra... just kept on telling me that if I couldn't even do that.. I had no place being here.. that I was lucky to even be here. So I kept on trying.. Over and over.. I though I just couldn't do any magic, no matter how much mana I could gather, no matter how many books I tried to read, I could never do it."

Maggie stood back up, continuing while looking Mona straight in the eye. "You see, I thought that I'd never be able to cast anything!"

Maggie sniffled, as the ethereal bluebell finally began to dissepate. Mona stood back, her mind wracked with warring emotions, her stomach queasy.

 _"She.. dosen't seem like a bad person. But.. she's a magicist.. she has to be. Is she lying to me? Hiding something? Is this whole personality a ruse, like mine? But what reason could... Ughaaah! I'll... keep my guard up."_

"Maggie.", said Mona, trying to sort everything through her head. "Why... why do you want to be a magicist?"

The blonde-haired girl stood back, looking towards her desk once more.

"Well.. it's because.. I think magic is beautiful."

The bluebell finally faded back into nothingness, as Mona stood in further confusion.

"Beautiful?"

"Mhm!", said Maggie, nodding while drying her tears.

"I...see." That response was decidedly... interesting. "In any case... I gotta go toooooOOOH CRAP!", Mona's mind flared with panic. She just realized she would be in for a world of hurt.

 _"_ The food! THE FOOD! I forgot I had to get back and cook! Oh No, OH NO. NONONONONO."

Mona immediately started running in circles, it was far too late to get back and start cooking. Everyone would be waking up and waiting for breakfast soon. This was the one job she was assigned that she actually enjoyed doing, and she had blown it.

Maggie looked up in bewilderment. "Mona!? What do you mean?!"

"It was my job! It's my job to cook for everyone and there's no time!", she yelled, pacing about the room.

"But..you're a kid? Why would you have a job like that?", said a puzzled young Magicist.

"I have to cook! It's my job at the orphanage!", Mona said, her eyes bulging as she stared Maggie down.

"WHAT?! That's not fair!"

"It dosen't matter what's fair. I have to do it!"

Maggie got up in a huff, and immediately walked over to her room's door. With great confidence, and her nose high in the air, she pulled a gold-colored rope, sounding a bell just outside her room.

Mona stopped. " _Did she find me out? Is she calling the Magistra or the Guards? I've gotta be ready. Maybe I can use that girl as a hostage...ugh..maybe."_

The young Alchemist's eyes sharpened as she prepared to fight for her life, the adrenaline in her system peaking as there was a knock at the door before she even realized what was going on.

Maggie opened the door respectfully, and a young maid in an apron had answered.

"Yes, Miss Margaret?"

"Good Day to you! I would love it if you could gather...Mona.. how many do you need?"

"..."

"Mona, how many?"

It took a few seconds for her to fully process the current situation.

"Ah, um.. sorry. How many what?"

"Pastries of course! How many do you want delievered?"

"Uh...Thirty, I guess?" _What is going on._

"Wonderful!", said Maggie, to the servant. "Thirty it is. Have thirty of our finest pastries delivered to..."

Maggie looked at Mona once more.

"Oh! Um. Yeah. The Orphanage. Put it in my name?", Mona gave Maggie the address, who passed it on to the young maid.

"Absolutely wonderful, Miss Margaret. I assume this will be billed to your father's account?"

"Absolutely!", she said. "A charitable gift to orphans! I'm sure he'd love to have that on his register!"

"Very well, miss.", said the servant, smiling. Maggie closed the door slowly, smiling at Mona, whose jaw had since dropped to the floor.

* * *

Plague had picked up the trail of the young Stannum Argen, heir apparent to the burgeoning Machinist guild that was becoming the talk of Pridemoor as of late, after making a brief stop to take care of some urgent business.

"The Machinists... this is as good a time as any to get more information about them. As Gramps used to say, time to gather some data! Hee Hee!"

Plague had made his way back up to the rooftops, bounding across them as he had seen Gramps do so many times before. It always thrilled him, even as much as Gramps always broke out into a cold sweat and gave a huge sigh each time he landed near the edge.

 _"That kid.. I'm sure he saw me. If I can get to him and... oh.. hee hee hee! I can't pass this up! "_

Thoughts raced through Plague's mind even faster as he bounded and dashed from awning to awning, lamppost to lamppost, and occasionally a tall person's head to wherever he could see. The guards moved quickly with the young boy, and the people in their path were always wary to move to the side at least five meters ahead of them.

 _"I think they'd actually be easier to follow if they were travelling by carraige! Sheesh!"_

Finally, the procession ahead of him had no choice but to take the long way around a large block. This was at last an opportunity to get ahead of the group.

" _I need to make it. Everything I'm planning right now depends on me getting to the blacksmith's guild first!"_

Ahead of Plague was a narrow alleyway between the two blocks. As if to mock the owners, windows with small awnings were spaced at odd locations between each, the edges of which nearly scraped againt the side of the other building. Anyone inside would have a view of nothing more than a dirty brick wall and an even dirtier alleyway below.

Plague studied the layout as he had been taught to so many years ago.

 _Your size is not a weakness. You can use it to go places and travel in ways others cannot. Now come on, boy. If you truly want to learn from me, show me what I know you can do!_

Plague leapt onto a crate, charging the switch that had been built into his boot.

" _I'm just going to keep trying."_

The energy charged below him exploded, rocketing Plague forwards and upwards towards the first awning.

" _If I fail, I just keep going. It's not failing if I keep going."_

Plague caught the edge and used his momentum to vault himself on top, using the tautness of the cloth to vault himself forwards once more clicking the switch in his boot with his big toe once more.

" _This is what I want to do, so I'll do it!"_

As he was about to fall short into the mess below, another explosion from the soles of his boots rocketed him forward onto an awning directly in front of him, this time the cloth nearly breaking under his increased momentum.

 _"It's because... I want you to teach me, Gramps."_

Plague faltered in the air but, steadied himself by throwing a rock as he reflexively began charging a new burst.

" _Teach me how..."_

The final burst flung the young boy forwards onto the final awning. Daylight was just ahead as he gave a final, normal leap to the sidewalk in front of him, at last taking a deep breath before observing the plain-looking visage of the Blacksmith's guild.

" _Teach me how to be an Alchemist!"_

Plague casually crossed the road, minding any carts that may have passed, and threw a bit of extra dust on his face and hood as he put it over his hair. If for anything, the Blacksmith's guild was known for its lack of care for appearances.

The building, or rather, complex of smaller buildings each with their own chimney, was mostly covered in a thick tarp that stretched over the open air field used to store materials and products, with holes only for air to come in and the smoke of the chimneys to leave and not settle back in the main area. The entrance was also itself hooded, with a simple guard checkpoint at one end, and a small tunnel leading into the main forge area.

Plague adusted his throat as much as he could, hunched over, and gave a sharp bite to his lip. Casually, he approached the gate from the right, huddled and shaking.

"Excoos me? Mishter gaad?"

The posted guard turned his head to see anyone approaching, and then subsequently had to look down to see the person talking. The sight unnerved him.

"Yes, my boy?", said the guard, kneeling and trying to look the boy, who from his view couldn't have been more than seven or eight years of age. "Why are you here at the guild? This is no place for children so young."

Plague didn't know whether to be upset or not at the guard's suppostion.

"I... My Daddy works here.. but.. *cough*, I weawy need to see him. He towd me to get him if I stawted to feew sick. " Plague followed up with a cough that seemed to reverberate in his lungs. It was quite real, as he had saved some dust to swallow for just this occasion.

The guard backed away as quickly as he could without seeming insulting.

"I..I'm sorry, but it's far too dangerous in here for children. Perhaps if you tell me your Daddy's name I can come and get him to take you to your home, very far away?" The guard spoke with a slight tremble in his voice as Plague had to bite his lip again to keep from smiling. He swallowed another bit of dust and combined it with the blood from his lip, letting out a huge hack that seemed to spray bits of blood and mucus across the dirty sidewalk in front of them. The guard recoiled in disgust as he returned to his post, Plague quickly scribbling with the phlegm and blood in the ground as the guard spoke from a position of safety.

"P..please. I think you should really return home...", he said from the comfort of his box.

"Oh..okay! I'll go back to the Witch Yawd! I'm Sowwy...", said Plague, as the guard heard a small blast.

Coming out to see what had happened, the guard saw a cloud of dust, and a small crater in the ground. "Child! Are you alright? Are you hurt? What was that? Did you say...the Lich Yard?"

When the dust cleared, the guard stood in utter disbelief as the scene behind him, save for the small depression in the ground, was completely empty.

Then, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and a breeze blow behind him from within the hooded pathway.

"Are you my Daddy?"

Behind him, a child with eyes as black as coal, ditry water oozing from their mouth, and hands covered in a thick black sludge float genty behind him.

His face quickly turned to terror, and he tried to scream, but the shock was so great that he could not, as the child opened their mouth wide and grimaced.

Needless to say, the guard fainted, Plague's float burst wore off as he dropped to the ground, and the young boy spat the soot out of his mouth in disgust while washing the coal off of his eyelids.

"Pleh! Pleh! Hee hee!", he said in equal measures of disgust and joy as he dashed in the opened gate, using his rags to camoflague himself as he burst up to one of the low rooftops of the large, open-air area where guildspeople were too busy going about their business to notice him.

 _"Ah, it may not taste very good, but that bit never gets old. I'll have to rememebr to laugh about it some more later. Now... Just gotta wait for that kid.",_ thought Plague as he scanned the complex for any sign of a medical area.

The Blacksmith's guild itself was overall more spread out than built high, as it was one of the oldest guilds in Pridemoor. From what he had gathered, they mostly had an attitude of keeping to themselves, working hard, and filling their quotas. The very definiton of an honest worker. Thus, it came as a suprise to everyone when it had only been so much as a decade ago that the Machinists sprang forth from a cabal of high-ranking members (Themselves mostly self-chosen, as the Blacksmiths themselves put very little value on guild rank other than who got which orders to perform and supervise), packing up what was once a fairly large section of the guild in Pridemoor, transporting themselves far to the east in an old, abandoned fort closer to the dreaded Tower of Fate, and quickly transforming it into what would be known as the Clockwork Tower, a symbol of the might of the new guild.

Plague had met several blacksmiths in his time in Pridemoor, and most were as he had been told; honest, unassuming, and hardworking. If he could help it, and if they didn't make it too easy, he tried not to steal from them. Most of the time. He had to eat after all.

 _"It really depends on that kid. Depending on his personality, I can work with this either way."_

Now, it was time to wait. The people he was expecting should arrive soon. Plague was a boy of many interests. Alchemy, for one, was at the top of his list. But close to that was something he had learned long before. Before Gramps had even found him among the people that used to use him. Before those people had found him among the others that died. Before he even knew it had a name.

Mona had called it Retribution, saying it more accurately described what Gramps sought in relation to the Magicists.

Plague, however, was more attached to the word that Gramps used. He loved the way it sounded and made his mind race. The feeling he got when he thought of it and ways to execute it. No one but no one would talk to him or Mona like that and get away with it.

Vengeance.

Yes, that was it.

* * *

"Are you sure it's this way?", asked Mona, currently being dragged by her hand in a vice grip by a budding magicist.

"Yes, this is it absolutely! I'm sure that his office is this way. I've been there a lot.", said Maggie, unaware of the implications of her statement.

Despite Mona's insistence on the need to help Maggie with her aim, the young girl was so overcome with joy at her successful casting of an illusion spell that she insisted that Mona be taken to Magistrato Baleon, headmaster of the school and 3rd in rank at the Magicist's Guild. It had been about five minutes since Mona had snapped out of the shock of Maggie taking care of her responsibility to the orphanage, and since Mona had voiced no objections to her suggestion, the Magicist simply dragged the girl by the hand out through the guild halls for several minutes until she had realized she was being transported against her will.

"I don't know about this. Are you sure I'm qualified?", Mona knew well enough that the girl was completely in awe of Mona's supposed magical talent. She just had no idea it would be this easy and this fast. To gain the trust of someone new, she and Plague had agreed that at least two demonstrations of value were required. One unintentional (on the part of the target's observation), and another intentional at the request of the target to show magnanimity. In this particular case the first had been unintentional from the perspective of both parties, but it had worked nonetheless, though for future situations she would like a greater deal of control over circumstances.

"Are you kidding!? I saw all those spells you did! You beat the test dragon! The upperclassmen use that for combat magic exams! ", the girl shouted with a smile as she picked up speed in the hallways that had transformed from dormitories to classrooms and offices, decorated with notices and marks of achievement throughout.

"You'd get in easy. Not only that, you helped me cast my first real spell!"

"But.. um.. Maggie, all I did was tell you to cast it. I didn't really do anything at all. I just pushed the book in your face. Your issue is with aim, which by the way we'll need to find the root of that problem eventually as well, not with controlled mana expression, or, I guess spellcasting in layman's terms."

"Argh.. see, look at all the words you know too. You're really smart, and..."

 _"I am not smart. I just read and apply what I've read whenever I can, and try to understand as much as I can. Plague... he's...he's a genius! I wish.. I hope..."_

"Hello! Earth to Mona? Whatchya thinkin' bout?"

Mona snapped out of her throughts to see Maggie staring at her with slightly puffed cheeks.

"Ahh! Nothing.."

"Your cheeks were red.. what were you thinking about?", she said with a precocious smile that gave a more piercing demeanor to the young Magicist than Mona had yet seen.

This was not the conversation she wanted to be having right now. "Huh? Oh, Nothing Let's g.."

"Was it a boy?"

 _"Stop."_

"Oh no... no.. it was.. about your aim.. I was having a few ideas and.."

"Oooh it was! It was! I can tell by your face!", she said with a gleaming grin.

 _"I'm not the one who's supposed to be being read like a book here! And besides, he's my best friend and partner in Alchemy!"_

"No! It really was!"

Maggie started to laugh.

"I mean.. it really was about your aim!", said Mona, her face becoming even more red, so much so that It was starting to look like the decorations for the Saturnalia holiday.

"Ooooooh!", said Maggie as she playfully bounced around Mona, who was trying desperately to hide her blushing as the two ran down the halls.

"Ahh. As... I...was.. *huff*... saying.." Mona desperately tried to catch her breath as she ran, appreciating the energy she had when Two was out all the more. "Your aim... can you tell me more how your arm feels when you do it?"

Maggie scooted to a stop in front of Mona in a heartbeat, showing no signs whatsoever of fatigue. She had to give her that, at least, the tiny magicist had boundless energy.

"Welllllllllllllllll.", she said, rolling her eyes upwards and placing her index finger on her cheek. "I guess it kinda feels... sharp? I guess that's it. "

 _"Sharp? It couldn't be that simple. But then again..."_

 _"_ Nevermind that, we'll fix it later. Let's go and get you signed up!", Maggie beamed confidently.

"Signed up for what, Margaret?", said a smooth, calming voice.

Mona turned around to see a rather tall man in flowing Magicist robes. His face was cleanly shaven and held a concerned smile, while his eyes looked between the two girls, from what could be seen behind his large glasses with rather circular lenses. He was of medium build, and seemed to be in his late twenties or early thrities. Mona tried to make out his hair color, but it was cleanly tucked away underneath his cap, also light blue with yellow trim.

"Oh! Magistrato Baleon! I was just looking for you!"

Maggie grabbed Mona by the shoulders and hopped beside her, hands outstretched and head bowed.

"If it was about your exam, I said you could retake it on the condition that you prac.."

"Ahh! Nonono.. this isn't about me, it's about her!"

Baleon bent over to get a closer look at Mona, his eyes squinting through his glasses. He got back up, and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Margaret, where did you find this poor girl? Her family is probably worried sick! Young Miss, I'm sorry if my student here forced you to be a party to any spellcasting practice."

"Acutally...", Mona started.

"ACTUALLY, we just kind of bumped into each other when I snuck down to the practice arena really early this morning and she was just there and oh gosh it was UNBELIEVEABLE she just went BOOM and POW and KABLOOEY and she bust up the practice dragon real good and it broke and I told her ' _Hey I'm Maggie!_ ' And then she said ' _Hey I'm Mona!_ ', and we talked and she's really cool and totally an awesome magicist and she helped me cast a spell and look I can do this now!"

Undaunted, Maggie closed her eyes and concentrated, creating the illusory bluebell directly in front of Baleon's face.

Mona stood back, a slight smile of pride crossing her face, as Baleon's glasses nearly dropped to the floor in amazement.

"Margaret...you...she...this girl taught you that?!"

Maggie did nothing but give a wide grin and shake her head repeatedly.

"So.. so let me get this straight.. I wouldn't believe this if I didn't see the results with my own eyes. Let me try to go back a bit and decipher Margaret's little dissertation back there. You, miss...?"

"Mona.", she said, trying to have as innocent a look on her face as possible.

"Miss Mona, yes, you were able to defeat.."

"Destroy.", said Mona, flatly.

"Destroy the test dragon? As well as teach this student who cannot even cast a fireball properly an advanced illusion spell? And all at your age? Without any kind of formal instruction!?"

Baleon straightened his glasses and gave a bewildered glare. The two girls simply stared at him blankly, the one in rags with a slight amount of impatience while the one in uniform started to bounce in place. "Well, how about we take a look see, eh? Children, come along!"

He motioned for the two to follow as he walked toward his target with a brisk pace.

"Maggie, when we get there, I'll see if I can help you with your aiming. I have a few ideas, but if it's anything like last time, this'll probably work out."

"Mona, you mean I'll be able to aim my fireball spell where I want to!?"

"Uh, yeah, if it works.", said Mona, grinning sheepishly while making sure the Magistrato could see her and hear their conversation.

 _"I need to get this guy to talk some more. He seems like an okay teacher as far as I can tell, I'm sure anyone who has spent any amount of time with Maggie would speak to her that way, so I don't think I've misinterpreted her personality. However, she did help me out big time, but she's also a Magcist? Argh! Okay, Mona. Let's take it one step at a time. This guy is gonna need some evidence that I'm some kind of magical prodigy. I can't repeat the dragon thing. He'd immediately be able to see I was just throwing potion bombs. Plus, I can't discount the possibility that he's familiar with some Alchemy. What do I..."_

Mona was shaken from her daze by large snapping fingers in front of her face.

"B..wha?!"

"Young Lady, I was trying to tell you that we have arrived.", said Baleon. It appeared that while she was lost in thought, they had made it back to the arena that she had emerged from hours ago.

"Oh, of course, sir.", said Mona while trying to remain as polite and proper as possible, giving a slight curtsy. Baleon and Maggie stepped further into the room, as Mona followed more slowly and sat down in one of the many audience seats. It was at this moment that Mona happened upon an idea.

 _"That's it, I can use Maggie! As long as I contrast myself with her I should be able to buy some time for him to at least consider someone as composed and analytical about magic as he seems to be with apparent skill and talent, should get him to think about it; not that I know any of the specifics yet. I'm gonna need to do something impressive for him to see here and now though. Gotta think.. come on, come on..."_

Meanwhile, the soft "clink clink!" of the glasses of a relatively young Magistrato could be heard falling to the arena floor.

"Seeeeeeeeeeeeee? Toldya toldya toldya!", said Maggie as she bounded around Baleon, whose mouth was agape at the ruins of what was formerly a very expensive piece of testing equipment and gift from another guild.

"But...how?!"

That was all the 3rd ranked member of the Magicist's guild as well as school headmaster could get out of his mouth as thoughts raged in his head like a storm. His mind first went to the idea that this was an elaborate prank by someone trying to climb the guidl ranks, or perhaps an overzealous senior student, but surely they would have left some sort of residual mana, or the telltale sign of advanced spellcrafts use to elegantly attack and dismantle it. Surely a senior student would know the ramifications of such an act as well.

But the dragon he saw showed no signs of such a thing , as he saw the young unfortunately-hued child before him approach Margaret once more. Getting closer for a more detailed examination as the two girls looked to be discussing something, he saw that the dragon was rather inelegantly dismantled. The edges of the wooden parts were not cleanly cut, but instead broken at odd splinters and charred at the edges. The metal bindings and gears were _melting._ This was not the result of an advanced magicist showig their skill in the complexities of spellmaking. If anything, the means of destruction had to be extreme physical force caused by the extreme exertion of a great pool of mana into more basic spells. Such senseless destruction would not have earned very many marks or impressed any of the senior Magicists. Whoeever had done this was was someone who both posessed considerable magic potential and utter ignorance of what the Guild's Academy used for scoring and ranking. In other words, the work of a Child Prodigy. An asset to not only the school, but the future of the Magicist Guild.

At that moment, a fireball shot out from the young Margaret's hand, and went straight forward, hitting one of the many targets that had fallen off of the formerly great mechanical beast. The young student gave an ear piercing squal of delight as she leapt and hugged the poor green girl, whose arms were flailing as she nearly fell backwards struggling.

Some way, some how, she had just taught the unteachable young writeoff how to correctly aim her most basic spell. Baleon smiled. There was little doubt in his mind, but the proper protocols must be adhered to, of course. Casually, he walked up to the two girls, the one in uniform having finally let go of the one in rags. Smiling, he extended his hand to her.

"Young Lady.", he said, fighting to hold back his swelling anticipation. "How would you like to become a Magicist?"

* * *

"No sir! No no no! I'm quite sure I checked it! You don't really look like you know what the problem would be, anyway!"

The young inventor shouted, while ripping off his welding mask revealing a bird's nest of red hair dripping with sweat. His freckled face looked slightly less so as his cheeks were red with anger at the adult man he was currently infuriated with.

"Young Master, I'm dreadfully sorry for doubting you, but...", the older man in the Blacksmith Guild's version of formal attire bowed graciously as he winced in anticipation of his inevitable interruption.

"But nothing!", yelled the young boy as he grabbed at his collar, revealing a bright red mark. "I triple checked those plans! The steam engine is just like the ones grandma makes at the tower! It worked just fine until today!"

Undaunted, the young boy pulled out a pair of glasses from his heavy apron's pocket. They were square with thick metal frames that looked as if they had been welded and re-welded several times over. Stannum enjoyed wearing them as he felt they helped cover up his rather puffy cheeks and made him look even slightly older. With fury belying his form, he ripped a rolled schematic off of the desk in the unusually clean room in vast complex of the Blacksmiths' Guild, and pinned it to a board hanging on the wall with alarming speed.

"Look at this! This is exactly how I built it. Now, can you tell me anything that could possibly be wrong with it!?" The boy glared daggers at the older man as he could say nothing as he took out a magnifying glass to examine the intricate detail of the drawing that outlined every last bolt, screw, and piston of the small vehicle that the boy had designed and built himself. Indeed, not a single error could be seen in its design, or course, the older man did not spend nearly as much time with machines as the young boy did.

"Young Master, I am at a loss.", said the older man, eager to stop babysitting and get back to his actual work in the guild. He was not a Machinist himself, after all. "Perhaps if you take your father's advice..."

The boy's face swelled and got even redder as his freckles blended with his fury. "FINE. GO.", he said while rolling his eyes so viciously they nearly fell out of their sockets. That was all the older gentleman needed, and with a sigh of relief and resignation, left the young boy's tent.

Stannum Argen was a genius. He knew it. Granma knew it. Even people that didn't really care for him knew it. Casually, he placed an old wrench in his hand, and tapped it against his head lightly in a ritualistic effort that he told himself was to stimulate his brain.

" _This isn't really something someone of my caliber would do._ ", he thought. " _But it always seems to get the gears moving."_

Cautiously, he moved over to the schematic, squinting his eyes to examine and compare every last detail of the design. It seemed like an obvious idea to him. Steam engines were already being used in their factories to create goods at a steady pace. Granma had already approved his prototype. If she couldn't see a problem with his steam-driven vehicle, why could there even be an issue in the first place?

 _"She just approved it so I would stop bothering her."_

The thought made his heartbeat slow and had him break out into a cold sweat, dropping his wrench on the floor. She must have known he would test it. Maybe she had that much faith in his abilities?

 _"She didn't care either way."_

The thought pounded at his chest like a hammer, making him take a few steps back. No. Granma was not the same person as his father. He knew that better than anyone.

" _I'm the Tinkerer, right... Granma?"_

It was at that moment that Stannum Argen sought to turn back to his design, when he felt a piece of hard metal at his foot a second too late, and fell flat on his face as he had tripped over his own lucky wrench.

"You were sabotaged, dummy.", said a voice from the celing.

Stannum leapt to his feet in a panic, surveying the room for anyone who could have come in while he was dazed.

"Who's there! Show yourself! I'm not a dummy!", he shouted, wielding the instrument of his recent embarassment like a deadly weapon. He looked all around, seeing nothing in his room out of order, until he felt a tap at his shoulder.

For one second, he froze. But in the next, he immediately turned around and threw his lucky wrench, which missed the figure directly behind him and went clear over his head. Panicking, he leapt back, getting a closer look at the somewhat familair figure chuckling in front of him.

"Hee Hee Hee! Oh wow. Sorry about that. But I just thought you'd like to know some information I'd come across."

The taller boy (in comparison) was clearly a street urchin. Dressed in little more than dirty rags, his messy black hair nearly exclipsed his somewhat protruding nose, which covered an otherwise unremarkable face. He would have called for help immediately had he not known who it was.

"You...you saved me.", said Stannum, getting to his feet. He frowned slightly and furrowed his brow at the surprise intruder. "My Father already repaid you, so what are you doing here, breaking into my room? You think I owe you? I have important work to do!"

The other boy closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath while seeming to be lost in thought. He then opened his eyes, his face contorting into a friendly smile.

"I'm sorry, sir!", he said, with a voice hovering between flatness and geniune apology. "I couldn't think of any other way to get to you secretly. Saving your life would be wasted if you were simply going to die later today. I had to come and tell you!"

Stannum's face grew less fierce and more pale as he sat on a nearby stool. "What do you mean die later? And sabotage? Why would someone want to kill me?" Then, it just dawned on him. "W..wait. Someone sabotaged my steam engine vehicle!? You mean it wasn't my fault?!", he said, his face beginning to beam, forgetting all about the rest of his situation.

"Yes, I figured the young genius of the Machinist.."

"Blacksmith's.", Stannum corrected, looking downward.

"Blacksmith's? But you.."

"My Father is the Guildmaster. He said that I'd be a great blacksmith."

The other boy in the room began to slowly circle him like a vulture, looking in particular at his arms and top of his head. He knew what he was thinking, and he was correct in that there was no way his physique could ever be used for Blacsmithing, let alone becoming a great one.

"But isn't...", he started.

Stannum motioned for the other boy to sit on the bed in his room, which he did with a curious bounce in his step.

"Never mind that for now.", he said. "Who wants to kill me. How? Why? I bet they're jealous, just like Granma says!"

"Hee hee... Ahem, I guess you could say that's part of it, I wouldn't know. But all I did was overhear some people talking. One was a man who said something like ' I'm gonna get that Machinist Kid! ' and the other was like ' See that you do. He cannot be allowed to ruin the plan.'. "

Stannum stared at him as if he had just some down in a beam of light from the fireplace. "That...sounds like something really made up."

"I did hear them say it! Hee! One guy was this grungy looking man with a scar on his eyebrow, while the other I really couldnt see that well. It was right after your father left you choking on dust."

Stannum couldn't believe the outrageous story that he had just been told. If the storyteller had told him something like that, he would not have paid him a single gold piece! Yet.. he couldn't deny that this was the boy who had saved his life. With no reason to help again, he had snuck into the guild and warned him that someone would try to put him in danger again. Worse still, this someone had ruined months of work on a machine that was supposed to show his father where he really belonged! Instead, he was broken and humiliated for something that wasn't even his fault. Stannum grabbed at the mark on his neck, furrowing his brow and staring daggers at the schematic on the wall.

"Yahh! It's all his fault!", he yelled out as he ripped the complex drawing off of its bindings and onto the floor, stomping on it. The boy now bouncing slightly on the bed seemed to be biting his lip fiercely as he got up, holding his hands out in a subtle attempt to calm the young inventor.

"Hey, it's okay . Hee hee! It's why I came to warn you. Now, we can..."

"I'm telling Father! He'll make that rotten snake dissapear! Just like.."

"WAIT.", shouted the other boy, grabbing Stannum as he was about to march out the door. " I don't know your father as well as you do, but he clearly values strength. How ideal would it be if you, with some aid from yours truly, of course, hee hee, captured him on your own?"

Stannum paused, for a moment insulted that he hadn't come up with the idea first. Just who was this mysterious boy, and why was he going so far to aid him? How much information did he have, exactly?

"Who are you, anyway?"

The boy Paused, giving a curious smile, and a slight bow. "Name's Crow T. Busybody. Freelance helper and hand in the shadows, at your service. Hee hee!"

"You.. laugh a lot, Crow.", said Stannum, about to go through the opening in his tent quite certain one of those things he had just stated was made up.

"Really? I guess I didn't notice. What can I say, I'm in high spirits when helping an innocent in need! Now, I just so happen to know where that man is going to be. What do you say we bring him in front of your father in chains, eh? I wonder what he'd say about failure then?"

"Let's go, Crow. You're with me." Stannum's face was embolded with a look of vengeful determinaiton as the smiling taller boy followed behind him. He cared little about what Crow said save for the fact he had been sabotaged, and led him out of the Blacksmith's guild with everyone in their path giving them a wide berth through the soot and gravel.

"Right this way, Mr. Argen!", said "Crow", as the two turned out of the guild entrance. The gate guard, currently being chewed out by his superior for fainting at his post, barely giving them a passing glance.

"Call me Tinker.", said the smaller boy, his gaze directly in the way of the taller boy's path.

"Really? Okay, if that's what you prefer. Any reason why?", said Crow, giving a slight look backwards as he stepped up his casual gait to maintain a few steps in front of the smaller boy.

"Because I fix things that are broken. Nomatter what they are! And especially if I'm the one who built it!"

Plague was about to tell him that Tinkering did not necessarily mean to fix something, but he decided to leave it be. He wouldn't want to be late for their appointment.

* * *

"I'm not going to be late!"

Mona's last words to the Magistrato echoed throught the Guild's Academy as the young girl bolted with greater speed than she had thought capable back to Maggie's room.

"No time, no time, no time!", she whispered to herself as she flung open the door, causing a loud crash as the door collided with the innocent wall on the other side, making a lasting impression.

"Mona? Are you okay?", asked Maggie, peeping cautiously around the corner to her own luxurious abode, as she could see books and parchment fly as Mona's head became buried in a flood of open books and notes. What exactly had she unleashed when she gave her new friend permission to use her room to take some notes and look at the textbooks she never had access to before?

" _Okay, Okay, let's see. If I was testing someone for free tuition to a prestigious institution, what exactly would I want from them... besides gold, which Ironically I wouldn't have a problem giving him if he were a completely gullible idiot. Argh! Okay, okay. Specific knowledge. Let's see, what do they value here..."_

Mona thought about what little she knew and had heard about the Magicist Guild Academy. She had feigned interest before at the Orphanage when she was feeling particularly bold to keep up appearances, so she knew it was quite old. Indeed she had seen here that historical records and murals were placed everywhere, and even the newer parts of the building seemed intentionally designed to evoke a feeling of worn-in nobility and presence. Clearly, a familiarity with important Magicist Alumni and events in the school's history would put her in at the very least immediate good graces with any examiners who took pride in the school.

 _"One. School history. Just replace 'Magicist' with 'Alchemist' in your mind every time you say something out loud. That should be enough to sound convincing. Admiration and detail will be key! This'll be just like school. Just give a few details and some kind of hint at a deeper understanding(Even if I don't really) and they'll think I'm a frogging genius, or well, at least knowledgeable. Can't get too confident. Backup plans. Use Alchemic association to remember more Magicist-related details than I would understand otherwise. Make longer inferences than they would expect. Use big words, and act like you understand perfectly."_

Okay. Okay. There it was. Her plan of attack for appearances. She still knew little about magic itself, and needed to do the actual legwork. Mona began fumbling through Maggie's stacks of books, reading introductions and taking minor notes as fast as she could. The rush was palpable as she stuffed croissant after croissant down her gullet, writing as fast as she could with her free right hand.

" _Two. Practical Applications. Spells. Just flippin' perfect. That fireball was the only real spell I actually know! Gathering mana at least isn't a problem, but I'm fairly certain the Magicist over here knows more about that than me. I'm far from one to recognize it, but that Bluebell illusion seemed fairly complex. If her Magistra weren't so stubborn she'd probably be doing just fine. Then again, I wouldn't even be in this position if that was the case. Ahh! Anyway, Spellcasting. I'm gonna have to fake it."_

Mona gave a slight "Heh." as she sported a small crooked smile while wiping sweat off of her brow, deeming the latest book she'd skimmed far too specific. She at least was able to glean that the current Guild was put in place as a compromise hundreds of years ago between the the ruling royal family and a noble family that had forsaken their noble titles to pursue magical knowledge independantly. Of course, with this being an amicable split, everyone knew presently the Magicist Guild had extremely close ties to the Nobility. Many would say they were commoners in name only.

" _Faking that's gonna be fun if I can figure out how. I'll see their smug faces look in awe and wonder, having no idea what they are witnessing is the power of Alchemy!"_

Mona sat up, grinning even wider, not noticing Maggie holding a long piece of measuring tape alongside her arm. "Heh.. Yeah! I can't wait!", she said out loud in a fit of joy as she leapt up from her seat, startling the young magicist who was quick to hide her tool behind her back.

"Yeah yeah yeah!", said Mona, now running around the room, something she rarely got to ever do.

"Um... Mona, are you feeling okay?", said Maggie with some concern.

"Never better!", said the Alchemist. "This really gets my brain working overtime!" Mona took a small but graceful leap as she pondered the last notes she took, connecting them in her head as she placed her foot against the wall, vaulting herself into a flip.

"Wow! You're pretty good at that!", said Maggie, trying to make conversation with the formerly reserved girl who was now a cyclone of activity. "Do you take dance classes?"

"Dance?", said Mona, while trying to tie the amount of magical trivia she had absorbed to Alchemical symboloy she had long memorized. "I don't really take anything. Orphan, remember?"

"Oh, right. Sorry..", said the young magicist, looking down and away at her own forgetfulness. . Maggie watched her move around the room with such a natural grace that that fact had slipped her mind for that moment. "It's just that... the way you move.. it'd seem like you would enjoy it. Maybe... I can show you sometime? You've helped me so much after all!", she said with a slightly embarassed smile.

Mona had known some dances from school, when she was very young, but they seemed more about teaching numbers and letters than anything else. If she refused outright, Maggie might think she had no interest in her friendship. That was the truth, but it was not what she wanted her to believe.

"I...guess.", said Mona, finally running herself out of breath as she slumped back to Maggie's desk to read and take more notes. "Maybe after all the tests."

Maggie smiled brightly, as Mona ever so slightly rolled her eyes straight back into her book. She was sure nothing would ever come of it, anyway.

* * *

The gold coins, expertly carved and minted by the royal treasury, rolled and bounced between Plague's fingers before falling back into a small brown satchel as he leisurely jaunted forward with a bounce in his step. The red-headed boy behind him had his gaze firmly placed on Plague's back, determined to follow him to wherever his target was. However, they could not help but wander to the trick show being put on display by his hand and the objects dancing upon it.

"That money my Father gave you... how much was it?"

Plague paused, turning his head slightly to the left so his eye made slight contact with Tinker's. "Ten Pieces. Ten big ol' G's. I wish I had a dad who thought my life was worth that much. Hee Hee Hee."

The red-headed boy's gaze lost its sharpness, still focusing forward, but on the Raven-haired boy's ratty clothes. "Three and a half Fariths."

Plague paused, the smaller boy nearly bumping into him as a result." Excuse me?", he said with a slight upward inflection.

"That's the conversion to Imperial Money. ", he said with a dull monotone.

"Why on Earth would that matter?"

"My Granma told me, in the Empire, there's a price for most everything. Books, houses, land, noble titles, you name it."

"Wow. Sounds like a pretty fair place. If you don't think too much about it. Hee..."

"Loyalty.", he said, just barely under his breath.

"Excuse me one more time? You're going to have to speak up.", said Plague, now fully turned around mroe engaged as the two boys stood in front of an alleyway, the setting sun slowly lengthening their shadows jsut enough to barely touch the tips of the buildings on the other side of the road.

"There's an old Imperial fable that Granma told me."

"You... know a lot about the Empire. But you don't seem to have an accent. Relatives from there?"

"Granma's husband, my... Grandfather I guess, was an Imperial. But I never knew him. She tells the coolest stories about how much we learned about Engineering from the Empire. They have machines that FLY! Can you believe that?! Can you even imagine building something that amazing? How many problems that fixes? They learned _so much_ from studying the Tower of Song. It's so tall it's supposed to stretch into the clouds! That's where the Empress lives, and.."

"I hate to interrupt, and it's not like I'm not interested in the rest of your story, but we're right here. I'd hate to tip him off.", Plague stated, while holding his hand in front of Tinker's mouth. He did want to know more, and why a citizen of Pridemoor, infamous for its stance against Mediterra, would be so excited about this, but it was neither the time nor place.

"Oh, yeah.. right.", he said, his cheeks turning a slightly lighter shade of red than his hair. "You have a plan?"

Plague smiled. "Indeedy I do! Crow T. Busybody is nobody's fool, I can assure you of that." With that, Plague winced slightly as the two started into the alleyway.

"We're kind of alone in here... maybe I should have brought a guard along?", said Tinker, nervously looking over his shoulder as their surroundings got dirtier and muskier in the growing shadows. Plague could see he was already thinking of heading back towards the street, until a shadow emerged from behind the two boys, and cleanly knocked the smaller one out with a single hit.

"And now we get to this..", said Plague as a shadow came down upon him in the next instant.

...

Stannum Argen, the Tinkerer of the Blacksmiths, awoke with his head throbbing and his vision blurred. His welding mask had been removed, lying casually on the dusty wooden floor next to him. Even with his glasses, which were somehow still on his face, the dizziness of the sudden blow made up more than its fair share of the difference for detrement to his vision.

"C..row..", he spat out slowly, having now sustained another serious injury on the very same day his vehicle had crashed.

" _That Guy!"_ , he thought, snapping himself back into reality. " _He sabotaged my vehicle and now he's kidnapped me?! Ooohh! And some help that Crow kid was! 'Nobody's fool' indeed."_

As his vision returned, so did some of his strength. The red-headed boy found that his legs were unbound, and hopped to his feet, wobbling ever so slightly as his hands had been unfortunately bound behind his back.

 _"Whoever it was, he wasn't even smart enough to gag me. Now let's see what we've got here..."_

Looking around the room, he saw rakes, shovels, and spades of all shapes and sizes, along with bags of seed and hay. Based on what he had been told by his father, the Agricultural Guilds usually kept their equipment in large storehouses, and the room he was trapped in, with only a small window to let in the ever-darkening light, seemed fairly well kept and free of dust, and a thick, newish-looking wooden door that was clearly locked. If this was a guild storehouse, it probably was not a disused one, and thusly one where he would be found shortly if not moved quickly.

" _Clearly, whoever this loser is, he's not very bright. I'd put me in some kind of abandoned storehoue behind several sets of doors in an area near where animals are kept to drown out any yells for help, and for the odor to both gradually break down the prisoner's will and dissuade anyone else from getting near. I'd also chain their feet, and..."_

He then realized that thinking of ways the kidnapper could have done better was probably not very productive, and set his eyes on a nearby door, grabbing a small shovel off of the wall after wriggling out of his poorly-done bindings. To his surprise, however, the shovel and the equipment near it had apparently borne the weight of some horsecollars behind them, sending them crashing to the ground with an echoing Thud.

 _"Oh scrap."_ , he thought. It was at that moment, howver, that he heard a familiar voice through the door.

"You never said there was going to be a person inside the thing! Of course I saved him!", the unmistakably shrill voice of Crow T. Busybody echoed.

"I don't know what you're saying. You were completely clear that I get the money, why do you care now?", said another voice, low and slow sounding, but very annoyed. It was very likely the man that had taken the two boys.

"I take money for a lot, but never someone's life. I'm calling this off! Hee!", spat out Crow, now seeming even more enraged.

 _"Did Crow...was he?"_

"You're really stupid, you know that, boy? First the bloody man tells me to work with you, and just because you missed a little detail, you wanna go back? There ain't no going back on thigns like this, ya twit! Now I say we follow the final instructions and gut the little pig like we were told!"

Stannum then heard a large fist slamming down upon a table, scattering what were likely more gold coins onto the floor.

"No. I signed up to break a machine. Never to kill anyone! You may be too drunk to remember the job right, but that's all you told me!"

"I've just about 'ad it with you. You know something, you fancy yourself a little smart alec yourself I bet, just like 'im? But you're no smarter than me. Now tell me, what's stoppin' me from taking all the money right now, and gutting ya both?"

Silence.

"That's what I..."

The sound of a loud explosion was heard as screams filled the air. From beneath the door, smoke and the sound of expletives Stannum may have heard his father yell several times in the past seeped in, as he heard the lock undoing.

Wasting no time, the young Engineer leapt at the ready through the thick smoke, shovel in hand. However, he then saw the gaunt form of Crow T. Busybody throwing something at what seemed to him to be a man made of muscle. The object made a tremendous sound, and the man's form careened to a halt as it hit the floor, his eyes barely open, as the red-haired boy now stood over him. With a swift whack, the shovel hit his forehead cleanly, and he was out cold.

As the smoke cleared, he stood at the ready, seeing Crow standing near the table.

"So... how much did you hear...hee hee?", said Crow, his face looking downward and sullen at the floor now scattered with black dust.

"You...you're the one who sabotaged my Steam Vehicle! That's how you knew!" Stannum wanted to be angrier, but given what had just happened, he couldn't bring himself to be. Before today, the worst thing he could possibly think someone could do to him was to break one of his machines.

"Yeah... I'm sorry. I got in the same way I got in to talk to you. But I didn't know you'd be in it! I'd never want to hurt someone! Well, someone that didn't deserve it. Hee..."

"Yeah... I kinda gathered that from what I heard. But why did you bother coming back to me? Why would you lead me back to that guy? You _didn't_ want me to get hurt, right?", said the engineer as he planted the shovel into a small hole in the floorboards.

"I... I hate being tricked. I know I tricked you, but I thought it was the only way you could learn the truth."

Stannum's heart sank slightly. "What do you mean, the truth?"

"I had to come back to him... to get this." Crow slowly took a piece of parchment from the folds in his clothing, and handed it to the Tinkerer of the Blacksmith's Guild.

He read:

 _To whatever ruffian this may fall into the hands of, it is your lucky day. This contract with the enclosed sum will ensure the stable future of The Guild. Your task is to ensure the testing of the newly built machine in the Garage belonging to the small boy does not go as planned. You are to follow the the enclosed schematic exactly, and destroy it upon completion of this task. Failure to do so will result in this contract becoming null and void._

 _I expect the machine and all components within it to completely break down. Permanently. If not, we are not unreasonable, and some parts may prove more resilient than others. Regardless, upon completion of this task, you will be rewarded with Loyalty, with the conditon that this missive in and of itself is destroyed._

 _A Concerned Patron_

Stannum's hand began to shover, and tears tarted to form in his ever-widening eyes as he gripped the parchment ever harder.

"When I went to break your machine, he promised me half the gold. He was also really drunk at the time, but they don't call him Hangover Jack for nothing. He said all I had to do was follow the schematic, then destroy it. I just guess I followed instructions better than he did. I didn't even know about the full note until after everything. When we were going to split the money, he told me he'd just take all of it unless I brought you back so he could _finish things._ That's when I knew I had to let you know, for your own future safety, and also prove it to you so you wouldn't think I just made it up. I'm.."

Stannum could not stop shaking as his mind tried to rationalize something terrible. "Rewarded with... _Loyalty."_ The old imperial fable, which if Gramma had told him, then she must have also told his father. The one about how Empress Maelle the Crosswind, later known as Maelle the 1st, subsumed the Black Isle into the Empire over 700 years ago.

 _"Clink, clink, clang, went the two and a half Fariths as they fell to the floor.",_ the words echoed in his mind. " _From the chief's head no sound at all, his mouth moving nevermore."_

 _"Such is the price of loyalty. Two and a half, but never three."_

It was one of his favorite stories. Maelle the Crosswind was a genius ahead of her time, just like he knew himself to be.

"Two and a Half, but never three. I...can't..", he said out loud, noticing a small satchel with the symbols of the Machinist and Blacksmith guilds pressed onto it attached to Hangover Jack's belt.

"Listen, I'm sorry that I tricked you, but I thought you.."

"NO!", shouted Stannum." I don't think I would have believed this any other way, actually. You're.. smart for someone so poor."

The young Tinkerer thought he saw Crow's eye twitch slightly, but the taller boy's mouth contorted into a sympathetic smile.

"I'm glad I could help you, but from your expression, I'm guessing that we can't just take this thing to the town guard."

Stannum wiped away a tear as he gave a stuttered chuckle. "H..ha! Clearly my F.. whoever in the guild sent this was pretty high up. They'd make it dissapear, just like the others."

"I've got a bit of an idea. Hee hee hee!"

Stannum paused, looking downwards and smiling slightly as the waning sunlight streaming through the window turned his glasses an opaque white. He had an idea of what he was about to hear.

"I've sadly worked with swillheads like Hangover Jack in the past, but never with someone as respected and admired as you. I can be your eyes on the street! Anything I can dig up for you on whoever set you up for this, I'll get straight to you, no charge!"

The Tinkerer smiled. "My own ally in the shadows, now that's something every strong hero in the stories has! You've got a deal, um...friend. But I think you might need a bit of help."

The red-headed boy reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a ring of keys on a chain. He saw Crow's eyes widen.

"A...are you sure?"

"We're in this together. You got tricked too, and to really help you'll need access to our facilities. These keys open anywhere my Father can go, and he can go just about everywhere in both of the only guilds that count!"

Carefully, he placed them in Crow's hand, as the other boy took them into his pocket.

"I'll guard these with my life, I swear it, Tinker! You can count on me 100%! Hee hee, yeah!", said Crow as his eyes seemed to beam with pride and joy. Tinker could only guess that poor people were easily amused by gifts, but Crow did genuinely seem like one of the good ones.

"The Tinkerer and the Crow... pretty cool sound to it I admit." Stannum did truly like how it sounded, though he knew that however this turned out, the poor boy's name and deeds would probably be lost to history without him.

As Stannum turned to leave, he felt Crow grab at his shoulder one last time. "Before you go.. I just wanted you to know... Your dad is jealous of you. I can see it. In terms of intelligence, I could see, you're way stronger than him. I think we just gotta prove it to him. We'll get whoever sent this, and really show him!"

Stannum Argen, Tinkerer of the Blacksmiths and heir to the only two guilds that mattered, gently shrugged his hand off, and continued to walk out the door. "We'll show him. I know it.", he said, walking out the door.

Plague made sure to see him out the door, well on his way back home to surely plot some kind of way to stand against the Father so subtly hinted in the note he wrote as the sender of the message.

He saw the magicists employed by the city start coming up the streets and filling the lamps with the light from their wells of mana that would last until the early morning. They were easily recognizable by their light blue robes and jugs of mana-infused liquid they had to constantly drink while working to keep pace and light the entire city. As he looked upon the familiar, comforting sight from a rooftop he did not particularly favor over any other, his thoughts turned back to the person that he knew would be there.

" _I hope Mona is okay. She's a better Alchemist than me, and knows more words than me, so she'll probably be fine. If I can pull one over on that self-styled genius, she could probably have the magicists eating out of her hand if she ran into one! Hee hee hee!"_

* * *

With a quick, stealthy leap and a short burst to ensure he didn't break any bones, he found himself back at street level, and walking back towards Gramps's hideout.

" _I don't think I could have sealed the deal if I didn't know 'Loyalty of the Crosswind', and add that bit to the end of the note before he saw it. She told me that story. It's like she knows everything! One day, I'll catch up to her. One day. Just you wait, Mona! Hee hee!"_

" _I don't know anything! Anything at all! Argh!"_ , screamed Mona inside her head as she raced along the city streets, the novella's worth of notes in her backpack shuffeling around, now illuminated with magical light.

 _"Anything about Magic! I mean.. anything that anyone who hasn't looked up the basics woulnd't know. I wrote down a lot more that I don't fully understand... but if I try to say any of it or use it in a conversation and end up being wrong in my assumption I'll look like a complete fake! Argh! Nevermind the Practical Evaluation.."_

The young girl looked forward and down at her path to the place she had come into earlier that morning, the large covered town square. Curiously, it looked as if one of the building's support struts had been paritally burnt, and someone may have been selling some scrap metal right below it. Bits and pieces remained of what was probably a much larger pile. Mona shook her head to clear it, and continued into the structure, down the ladder to the lower level where several underground pubs were beginnging to fill with Guildsmen who had completed their day's work. Musicians were beginning to set up on a stage, while, bartenders lined up their bottles on well-worn shelves and tables.

In some ways, Mona much preferred a filling crowd of adults to a sparse one, as they were less likely to notice someone of her particular tone and not drunk enough to become as uninhibited as other children, nevertheless with much more power behind any potential blows. She gradually made her way to the back corner dodgning the odd stares she was at the mathematical unbreachable limit of getting used to. Finally, she made her way back to the place she had gone into what had seemed like days ago, closed the door, put the barricades back up, and saw someone familiar waiting for her sitting at an old wooden desk gathering dust in the room's corner.

"Plague!", she yelled, her heart filled with relief, embarassment, and the ever present desire to apologize.

"Mona, I'm glad you made it back in one piece! Hee hee hee!", he yelled back, a smile across his face as well.

"I'm really sorry for running off like that. I really shouldn't have done it. But oh man do I have a tale or two to tell you!", she said, bowing her head slightly in apology before running over and opening the trapdoor.

"Wow! That's amazing, but I bet it'll pale in comparison to what happened to me! Heh!" Plague's eyes lit with the fire and excitement that had encouraged her so many times when it had felt like her life would never be able to move forward, that she would die before learning all she could about Alchemy and the world. His mouth had become a winning smile, inviting her to the newest challenge, one she would gladly accept. Always.

"Oh really?", she said, grinning from ear to ear. Well then let's just get down and see. Come on, I can't wait to get back to..." Mona paused while going down the ladder to the newly lit room, Plague following quickly. " hmmm...we should really think of a name for this place."

The two children hopped down to the main area, lamps now lit all around. There, they shared their stories of deception and danger, fright and fallacious friendships. Plague listened in awe as Mona told him of Maggie, and Baleon, and the upcoming Practical Examination in two days time. Mona gasped while Plague told of his tale of co-opting the ever-sloshed Hangover Jack into thinking that he had sent Plague on a job to sabotage the Tinkerer's Machine.

"So you used some of the gold that we made two days ago and just gave it to him, implying it was from the Machinists?!", said Mona, her face practially beaming with unrestrained joy and anticipation as the candelights flickered and danced, the two sharing all kinds of baked treats Mona had brought back from the dormitory.

"Hee! That's not all! You know, on the way there, I was worried that he might catch on, or not buy it. But then he mentioned something by sheer luck! The tne gold pieces his Father gave me? You'll never guess how much it is in Imperial Fariths...", Plague said, walking about the large chamber haughtily with his nose in the air.

"Wait.. that's ten pieces.. so.. Around two and a half, right? Heh, that's funny. Just like in the.."

"Story, yes!", interrupted Plague, caught off guard that she was privy to that information as well. "Get this, from what I can see, he's pretty impressed with the Empire's machines, and apparently knows the story really well. Before I could even connect it, he saw the amount of gold as a sign. He even whispered 'Loyalty'. I couldn't believe it!"

Mona got up and helt her hand to her forehead tryign to stop from shaking in anticipation and awe. "So you added that reference to the letter, further confirming the connection in his mind! My gods Plague, I wish I was even half as smart as you. Seriously, I..." tears of amazement and pride rolled down her cheeks, telling the world the rush of emotion that was boiling within her mind. "I sometimes just can't believe it.", she said softly.

Plague stopped prancing about and looked at her face, immedaitely coming to her side. "Are... you okay?", he said, unable to look her directly in the eye.

"Yeah.", she said, sniffling, still with her eyes wide, seemingly unable to stop smiling. "Plague... you really don't realize how amazing you are."

The girl stood up, walking over closer to the small fireplace they had set. She was unaware of the shocked expression her words moulded onto the face of the young boy. "You followed what your Gramps said, what he wrote, and you were just able to act on it like it was second nature! You applied it to a new and current situation you just stumbled upon and perfectly excecuted a plan you had concocted out of thin air within what was apparently seconds! When you saw an opportunity, you went for it with everything you had. I...I'd give anything if you could teach me how to do that." Mona's voice echoed with a combination of pride and sorrow that was rarely heard in the world.

Plague saw his best friend look at him with a look he absolutely hated to see on her face, and hated even more that he had been the apparent cause. "I.. I told you everything Gramps told me. I don't really..."

"I know what Gramps told you.", said Mona, wiping the tears of joy from her eyes. "I want to learn from _you."_

The smile on her face, and the look in her eyes, was one of absolute sincerity. For someone like Mona for whom survival meant a constant string of lies and deception, this was one of the most terrifying things she could ever imagine doing.

Plague's cheeks turned a bright red, and then the young boy squinted his eyes, looking down and away. "M...Mona.", he said, his lips trembling,his feet shaking. The girl looked at him curiously, then worryingly. She saw the slight shaking in his hands and grew ever more concerned.

"Listen... if it's too private..", she said, holding out her hand with a small smile.

"N...No!", he shouted back. "I...It's not that at all! I... I just want you to see... to see..."

"To see what? Is there a book you wanted to show me?"

" _To see youself the way I see you."_ , were words he could never, ever hope to say. " To see that what you did today was really incredible too! Hee hee..."

"Heh... thanks.", she said, coming closer, feeling the side of her neck slightly with her hand. "But you.."

"But me nothing!", he praised back. "Mona, you know so much, you understand so much! Do you think I could ever fake being a Magicist and have the patience to read and try to understand something I really couldn't care about at all? Do you think I would be able to summarize these big books into the notes you have stuffed into that pack so we can actually use and learn from them? Mona, you're.. you're..."

The young girl went over to Plague, pointing her finger at his mouth, smiling. "I'm what, Plague?"

"You're... really smart! Maybe even a genius!", he said, looking downward as his cheek turned a slight shade of red.

 _"You couldn't be further off."_ , she thought, but did not have the strength to say. " _A genius is someone who forges a new path for others to follow. Someone like Maria. Someone Like Zosimos. Someone like you, Plague."_

She wanted Plague to be happy. At that moment, she could see he likely felt bad about her own outburst, one that had come out of nowhere and killed the joyous mood the evening should have had, the evening she had told the orphanage she was spending at the Magicists to study. They couldn't have been more happy to be rid of her for one day. She didn't blame them.

" _I just read. I read and try to understand, and sometimes don't. What I do, I write down. I remember. I use it where and when I can. And I just hope that I've learned enough to maybe touch what it's like to be as amazing as that. I know you'll see that one day."_ , more words left unsaid rolled through her head like rocks down a mountainside. She hoped selfishly that the day he did see that would be far, far away as she touched the side of her neck once more, not noticing Plague's gaze pierce the air like daggers at her motion.

"Hah! I guess so, Plague!", she said with the widest grin she could muster. "I am pretty good, aren't I?", she said while haughtily holding her hand to the side of her mouth. She saw Plague instantly perk up up again.

"Well, hee hee hee! Now that that's settled, lets work on our plan for the test! They won't believe what they're going to see!" Plague leapt to the left and held out his hands, eager to work on one of the Alchemic devices they had found earlier, one that Gramps had left behind for him.

"Oh... you bet they won't. Let's show them the power of two Alchemic Masterminds!", Mona held out her hand to the side for a high five, to which Plague reciprocated with eager abundance.

"That's the spirit! Hee hee hee! Now let's get to work!"

With that, the young boy hurried off to get another close look at the device Mona and Plague had wondered over before, scheming and planning their actions for the coming day, and beginning to draw alchemic symbols on blank parchment. Mona followed, though more slowly, sparing time for one last thought on something other than the next day.

"Plague, one last thing.", she said, flipping through her notes as she simultaneously used them to brush away dust.

"Yeah?"

"You told Stannum Argen your name was Crow, right?"

"Hee hee, yep!", the smaller Alchemist said.

"If I ever meet him, tell him my name is Raven.", she said with a smile.

"A Matched set! Pretty cool!", he said, smiling as the two lifted a large wheel into place, turning it to see how to fit various symboloigcal notations on each section, and how each would work in synchronicity with another.

" _There is one thing I know I can do quite well, Plague. One thing I just might be better at than even you."_

She stopped briefly, pointing to a page in one of her notes before sharing a smile with Plague.

" _I'm a very good liar. I know it, because if I wasn't I'd be dead."_

* * *

The air outside was positively electric, as the news had spread in no small part to a small magicist with a big mouth, that a mysterious prodigy dubbed "The Phantom Sorceress" had come in early in the morning over the weekend and destroyed the practice dragon normally reserved for Guild uperclassmen with a volley of powerful blasts.

The Guild's own outdoor Amphitheatre was set to hold perhaps two hundred people, but today it seemed like the crowds were going to burst down the aisles.

"My, I heard that she's only six years old, but knows three languages and hundreds of spells!", said one man, walking down the stairs to an open seat, pushing his way through the busy crowd.

"Nah, you're wrong.", said his friend, right behind him. " I heard it was actually a 13 year old that knew how to break a house in two with a single blast!"

"There's no way that's true!", said the woman next to him. "I heard that she's actually quid timid and well read, and actually thought the dragon was real and tried to attack her! She then summoned her strength from within, likely from a noble bloodline, and just blew it up with the snap of her fingers!"

The first man sighed, and looked at her with a dissapointed glare as opportunistic shopkeepers and Gastronomers began to line the edges of the Amphitheatre with stalls carrying all kinds of Magic-realted souvineers and delicious treats. "Maybe.. but I think that the shock was so great, that must have been what caused that poor child to crash in front of the town square!"

"Oh yeah, the Machinist kid. But The Phantom Sorceress or whatever they're calling her was supposed to be powerful beyond their age, and a giant! She'll be an amazing asset to our Millitary! She'll show that Empire!", said the 2nd man.

"What? She'll definitely get into guild politics. That's what Arga did, isn't it? The ones with real talent always do."

 _"_ Don't get your hopes up for that.", said another woman, not helping but to listen in while trying to concentrate on reading a pamphlet she had taken concerning the Magicist Guild Academy. " I heard she was a toadskin."

The three people that had been talking suddenly froze, and stared at the new woman with a look that one would give a person who just poured manure on their new shoes. "Wow, what did she ever do to you?"

'That's... not something to call someone in polite company. I'm sure she looks like any other girl her age."

"Yeah, don't compare her to those cursed people... that's just rude."

"Sorry?", the new woman said, still looking forward. "It's just what I heard. I don't think it's true either. Those people don't usually live that long anyway."

Going back to their positions, they saw that all kinds of magicist aides had begun to prepare the stage. Targets stationary, moving and flying were slowly being placed around various pillars and platforms. Those which responded better to specific spells were color coded by elemental property, as the grounds were being painted and rapidly dried to reflect boundaries and starting positions.

Behind it all, however was a great archway where a curtain had been hung, not red as in theatre tradition, but light blue with yellow tasseling, as per guild tradition and regulation. Between the two great sheets, barely visible, was the face of a well-kept woman just beginning her middle tears, poking out with a subtle frown and a deeply furrowed brow. In a huff, she backed off, dissapearing into the stage's preparation area, looking for one man in particular.

"Baleon!", she yelled, the various magicists and workers stepping ever so slightly out of the way until as if by magic, a path was cleared directly towards her intended target. "You had best stay right where you are.", she said as she marched over, the bespectacled man flinching ever so slightly in rhythym with the click of her boots and bounce of her bound and netted red hair poking from underneath her hat.

"Now now, Gemma, I assure you..", he started, but was then cut off as she spat into a tirade, her arms flailing.

"Assure me of what, Baleon? A carnival? A performance? I certainly was not assured of either of these things, but it is apparently what we have right here in place of an Examination for Academic Excellence!"

Baleon stuttered, fixing his glasses as the 2nd in command of the guild and former headmistress continued to pace about the room, slowly but surely creating a divot in the floor. " This wasn't my doing! All of these people, these vendors, they just showed up like it was some sort of godsforsaken holiday!"

"It's just a test, an examination for a new student, one with not a single piece of gold to her name, mind you, nor any proper name at all really being an orphan. Yet here we have half of bloody Pridemoor at our doorstep expecting some kind of theatre."

Baleon took a deep breath as he came towards the Magistrallia and smiled. "If this girl is even half the magicist I think she is I assure you the scholarship will be worth it."

"She'd better be Double!", said the Magistrallia, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head in frustration.

"What I don't understand is how so many people knew on such short notice! It's barely been two days and already... well, you saw. I mean the only people that knew about any kind of details were myself, the girl, and...Margaret."

The two Magicists dropped their heads between their shoulders and sighed simultaneously.

"Ohhhhhh Margaret.", said Magistrallia Gemma, wiping her hand vertically along her face in frustration, being just careful enough not to smudge her makeup. "There isn't enough patience in all the lands before the Wound to deal with that girl.", she said dejectedly.

"There, there.", said Baleon. "Just think of how good for the school her presence here is. I mean, besides the obvious, she brought this new student to our attention!"

" _Prospective_ student, Baleon. Let's not just open the gates for her based on hearsay and some wreckage. She still has this exam, and the written exam after. Let us also not forget she has to go through Arga's personal interview as well."

The two magicists shuddered simultaneously, then shared a quick laugh as old friends, the tension between the two finally diffusing. "Hah! Now that is something I'd expect a crowd for. "

Gemma's smile turned back to her concerned, focused face that students had learned to be wary of as she began to leave to take her seat. "Remember what I said, Baleon. Double."

With that, she turned around, finally ready to leave and take her own seat amongst the growing crowd.

"Well, that's that I suppose!", said Baleon, eager to get the whole proceeding over with. "Now. Where is the woman of the hour?"

* * *

 _"Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan like a man from Dran in a pan with the Flan. Yep. Nothing makes more sense than that. Stick. To. The. Plan."_

This rather silly and nonsensical mantra repeated in the head of a poor ten year old girl with neither a mother nor a father nor a penny to her name. Well, a legal one anyway. She paced about uncomfortably around the stage, in her usual set of clothes (Washed recently, it must be said) as uniformed people of all kinds looked around nervously in a flurry of yellow and light blue. Cautiously, she peeked out from the curtains, hood held over her head, and saw more people than she'd ever seen together in one place before. Worse yet, they were there to see _her._

This was not part of the plan like a man from Dran with Flan.

"Hey Mona!", said a voice bursting with exuberance.

She would have jumped in surprise, but her nerves were so on edge that they had gone well past the point of being easily disturbed, around to being completely unshakeable.

"Hi Maggie.", she said with a slight gulp. "Is... this normal?"

"Is what normal?", asked Maggie. Mona was about to turn around to answer, but as the girl came into view Mona noticed something extremely peculiar. Emblazoned on her conical cap was a banner with the words "The Phantom Sorceress Strikes!" in a dramatic font.

"What...is that?!", said Mona in a newer state of shock than she would have thought possible at this point.

"Ooooh! Do you like it? I designed it two nights ago after you left, among other things, and my Father sold them for quite a profit since we couldn't make that many on such short notice! Oh man, the vendors just gobbled them up! Not...literally of course. Well, except for the Phantom Sorceress colored pastries! Those were quite tasty."

Mona could barely keep up with what had just happened, as if she needed any more surprises. She was feeling more emotions at a single time than she had thought possible.

"Oh, would you look! Everyone outside is wearing your name to cheer you on! Isn't it great?!" Maggie took Mona by the shoulder and pointed to the crowd. Mona had not been looking for it in particular, but sure enough, dotted all around the crowd were people wearing what was apparently a line of Phantom Sorceress Apparel and Memorobilia. Hats with banners, some vests and shirts, and some signs with a hooded woman in darkened magicist robes and a large explosion in the background!

"What!? So this is why so many people are here? But they have no idea who I even am! Why would they be so interested?" Mona's mouth grew into a frustrated grimace as her eyes began to bug and she held the sides of her head. At the very least, this whirling dervish of a magicist had some sense of propriety in not showing her face. She could only guess it helped fit with the theme of a "Phantom Sorceress".

Maggie sighed, taking her friend by the shoulder and pulling her close, raising her right hand to the sky. "Mona, Mona, Mona. Once they heard the story of how you slew the test dragon in a single decisivle blow blindfolded with one hand behind your back, and saw that I could actually use magic because of you, they couldn't believe their eyes! This is _Pridemoor_ , Mona. Not Eifelle or Pequena. A magical prodigy like you hasn't been seen here since the days of Arga! Or.. so I've heard. Hieee!"

 _"I swear I am going to transmute you into something completely unrecognizeable the first chance I get!"_ , half-joked Mona in her head as her panic found newer and newer limits to break through.

"So that's what's been going on!", said an older male voice, boots clicking against the ground as he walked towards the two girls. "Margareeeeet!", he shouted, the blonde girl turning with her friend instantly to face him.

"Yeeees Magistrato Baleon? Our new star pupil is here, ready and raring to go!", she patted Mona on the back, causing her to stumble forward into the Magistrato. In a slight panic, she backed away, tripping and falling on her bottom, her head instantly turning upwards to meet his piercing downwards gaze.

"Yes... I see.", he said cautiously. With a soft hand, he helped Mona up, her hood falling from her head. He saw the worry on her face, and gave a kind smile. "Listen to me, little miss. I can see from the look on your face you weren't expecting a crowd. Honestly... neither was I. Heh, I can see young miss Margaret got the better of both of us, eh? But don't let that bother you. I hate crowds too. I like it with just me and my spells. Magistralia Gemma's the same way. Sometimes, though, you just have to work with what life gives you. Don't even look at the crowd. Just concentrate on the test, and you'll do just fine. You've survived this long, eh?"

Baleon looked into the eyes of the young girl, eyes that looked as blue as the night sea, and the face around them. A face that had clearly seen a great deal of hardship, but had somehow come out on the other side. "Yes... I think keeping your hood up is just fine for now, if you'd like. I've studied curses, and there are none that I know that result in your predicament... but I think you know if you've lived as long as you have, what the best course of action is for your own survival. I won't push my own ideals upon you."

Mona's eyes grew especially wide with the last statement. Certaintly, it was far from what she would expect a magicist to say. "T.. Yes, Magistrato.", she said, flatly. "I will do what is expected of me."

Baleon gave a slight giggle, having personally seen what the girl was capable of. _"Of that, I have little doubt."_

* * *

Plague struggled amongst the crowd, pushing and shoving his way to the front. All around him, people were looking at the curtains impatiently, shuffling and eating baked goods from the vendors that had taken advantage of the crowds.

 _"This crowd makes no sense! Wasn't this supposed to just be a test for a school? Why so many people? Ugh.. I don't like this at all."_

Plague continued to push through, sometimes leaping up to the tops of vendor stalls, hurrying about as he always did. Finally, a uniformed Magicist emerged from the curtains, and the crowd went silent.

"Welcome, one and all, apparently, to this practical examination. ", the bespectacled man said, looking carefully around the amphitheatre."Normally, I would eschew the preamble, but because of the current circumstance, and... our community outreach being what it is, I, Baleon Alcrest, Magistrato and Academy Headmaster, will explain what you are about to see."

"We came to see the Phantom Sorceress!", shouted a man from the far right of the theatre.

"Yeah, let's see some magic!", shouted a woman from the left.

After a brief pause, Baleon continued, his gaze focused on the panel of Magicists in the center of the audience, within a booth with an ideal view of the area. " The prospective student to be tested will be given a series of tasks to determine her competency in the magical arts. Based on my own previous estimations, she will be given tasks expected of a fourth-year student. All are welcome to observe, but I would please ask for silence to ensure a smooth run-through and fair judgement. Thank you all, and long live Pridemoor."

With that, the man stepped to the far end of the field, and the crowd watched with baited breath as his hands began to glow, and circles of colorful light enveloped sections of the ground. In an instant, the circles turned to columns that shot into the sky, gradually dissepating to reveal five golems crafted of colorful light, each sporting large round glasses similar to Baleon's.

"Mona, if you would?"

With little drama, the hooded girl stepped out from behind the curtain and faced Baleon while the eyes of everyone in the audience were glued to her.

"Now then, young lady. These light golems will approach you. Your goal is to avoid being caught. Use whatever spells you deem necessary to get away and avoid contact. Do you understand?"

There was a brief pause as the hooded girl took a step forward. "Can I destroy them?", she asked. Some in the crowd gasped.

"Well, there's no rule against it, but these are far sturdier than any combination of wood or metal. Your strategy is entirely up to you.", said Baleon, ready to give the signal to start.

"Understood."

Somewhere in the audience, a small boy jumped up and down in excitement as the starting signal was given.

In a flash, the young girl moved like lightning, leaping up to a nearby platform. Suddenly, an explosion of mist surged around her, cloaking the girl in a thick fog. The audience murmurred and whispered in confusion.

"What is she doing?"

"They can still see where she is!"

With little else to go on, four of the golems approached Mona with a deliberate pace, their 'eye-glasses' unblinking and unmoving. In the audience, a very soft "Hee hee hee." was just barely audible amongst the mumurs. For the briefest instant, a smile darted across the shadowed face of the Phantom Sorceress.

 **CRACK!**

 **BOOM!**

 **CRASH!**

Flashed of light and sounds of thunder seemed to come out of nowhere as furious blasts engulfed each of the golems, covering them in colored clouds of smoke and fog similar to that of the Phantom Sorceress.

As the original cloud cleared, the audience gasped as the young girl was nowhere to be seen, and the Golems appeared to be in a state of confusion as the clouds around them seemed to grow as they started to try to move faster and bat it away.

Suddenly, another deafening explosion ran out as the yellow golem was engulfed in a series of pink clouds, the third of which exploded in such a catastrophic manner that the entire amphitheatre shook, and some audience members screamed in surprise.

None, however were more surprised than Baleon to see that a yellow golem had begun to break. A crack slowly formed in its left eye. With a sharp snap, it ran through the rest of the construct like a lightning bolt, and in the next instant, the construct had become dust.

The crowd gasped. Then, three more loud booms filled the air as the other golems were summarily surrounded in their own clouds of smoke, and underwent the same process.

For what seemed like an eternity, there was silence.

Baleon did not know what to believe: His eyes or his head, as the young hooded girl stepped out from behind a column.

"Did I perform to your satisfaction?", she said, her expression unmoving and face seemingly permanently obsessed with looking at the ground in front of her.

Gemma, 2nd in rank of all the Magicists in Pridemoor, had trouble closing her mouth and staring at what had just transpired, forgetting to write in a score in the evaluation sheet.

Finally, a loud, piercing voice broke the silence.

"Hee hee hee! YEAH! Let's hear it for the Phantom Sorceress!" The owner of this voice knew what she had done, what she was still to do, and still could not believe his eyes. The machine worked. The transportation circles worked. The fall loader and switching system had been a complete success.

The crowd erupted. Cheers and yells rang out everywhere as the citizens of Pridemoor were utterly convinced they had bore witness to the birth of a legend.

"Hail Pridemoor!", one man Shouted.

"Long live the Phantom Sorceress!", shouted a woman from the right.

"Phantom Sorceress! Phantom Sorceress!" they yelled. It seemed the crowd had indeed been given the show that they had been implicitly promised.

As Gemma slowly snapped back to reality, the Magistralia shook her head and immediately cast a spell into the air to magnify the volume of her voice.

"Just a reminder to all audience members that silence is to be maintained throughout the evaluation! We will be unable to proceed unless there is decorum befitting..." The Magistralia struggled to enhance her volume over the continued roar of the crowd, enhancing the power of the spell. "Befitting the respect our guild and country deserve!"

Her announcement seemed to have some effect, as the crowd finally began to dial down its enthusiasm. Baleon, looking over to Gemma for a signal, saw her eyebrows furrow and shoulders shrug, as he decided to continue on with the evaluation.

"Yes.. well... yes I'd say you did quite well. Extraordinary, even. Now, let us move on to the next phase. Here you will see..."

Baleon's voice continued on, explaining the goal of the next test, precision aiming, as he summoned multicolored floating targets.

Plague watched on as his closest and only friend passed section after section, belying expectations of both the Guild members and the townspeople present. He could not help but share in the pride he felt as he saw her cause the masses to cheer and yell in favor of the power of Alchemy, the power that Mona had realized how to harness without their knowledge.

 _You see Plague, This machine was built to rapidly fill potion bombs with ingredients, sending them along into these satchels as someone turns the crank._

BOOM! The targets exploded, one after another, as the crowd roared and smoke filled the air every time the Phantom Sorceress cast a spell.

 _I think that we can use this and combine it with transportation circles to call upon any alchemic potion I need in a pinch!_

CRASH! Two more targets fell to the ground as they exploded with bursts of fire and ice.

 _We'll empty the big jars and seal the bottom with a plug carrying a transportation circle. We'll then fill the jars with some of the potion bombs that your Gramps left here. I wish we could make more of our own, but there isn't enough time. I'll put the corresponding symbol inside a small card on the inside of my glove, facing outwards. The glove'll be cut so the potion can get through._

Baleon announced the next test, and the next, and the next.

 _All I'll have to do is activate the right circle, and I can use any of the potion bombs stored up here at any time I want. Of course, there's still the problem of making it look like a spell..._

Far away, underneath a town square, large bottles were slowly being emptied as brief flashes of light from seals as their bases flashed and transported the potion bomb contacting them hundreds of meters away to the cleverest Alchemist Plague had ever seen since his Gramps had left.

 _Black Powder, sawdust, sugar, and sulfur. You taught me that one! Smoke Bombs in a similar setup for my left hand! They'll never see me summon or throw a single one as long as the fuses are short and I light them using mana!_

Mona passed the next test, and the next, and the next, The crowd roaring the name a certain magicist had given her after each blast of Alchemic energy focused through the ingenuity of a young girl.

 _It's okay, Plague. It's a test. I've taken a lot. I'll be good. We already got the hard part figured out. There's always more than one way through. Sometimes, you have to get a good read on the teacher. See what they like and dislike, steer them away from topics you mght have trouble in in the class so they don't test you on them, and get them to talk abot things they like. Other times you see patterns in their questions, in their way of speaking that lets you know exactly how to word your answers to get a better score, even if you might be wrong._

Baleon was smiling, giving the signal for the final test, as Gemma looked at him, then forward at the future of the Magicist Guild. More golems were summoned, this time with makeshift weapons. Some with swords, some with axes, and some with bows.

 _When you can't do that you read all you can, see all you can, but don't panic and try to remember it all. Take notes on what's important. Use your mind to fill the gaps and connect the dots.I don't waste any more time than I need to working on something you don't want to do with my life. Trust me, there's no one better at faking being smart than me. You fell for it too, after all!_

Smoke, crashes and flashes of light filled the air as the crowd cheered her on and on as blows were struck, blows were dodged, and magical constructs began to burst into thousands of beautiful sparks.

 _Hey! Wow! Take it easy, Plaguey. I was only kidding, yeah? But just trust me on this. I bet at the end of the day, an Alchemist will be cheered on by the very people that put them to death. I guess that's already a kind of vengance, right?_

The final smoke cloud cleared, and standing there was a girl Plague knew he would never stop being impressed and amazed by, and never ever stop learning from and learning with. Mona, the Alchemist.

 _I don't really have that much reason to worry. If anything goes wrong, I can count on you, right?_

The bespectacled magicist and the magicist with her long hair bound in a net, among several others, ran out onto the field to congradulate the young girl and shake her hand as banners bearing her moniker fluttered in the sky.

 _You may not now or ever be an official knight, that's true. But you can be one to me, if you'd like._

Plague gave a sigh of both happiness and relief as he saw Mona, still with her ever-present poker face be lead back behind the curtain by the two magicists. The crowd began to file out with smiles on their faces, wondering out loud just who exactly the Phantom Sorceress was. But Plague knew.

 _"You're_ _someone I'll never stop learning from. Maybe one day I can catch up, Mona."_


End file.
